Sports

Catching duo stare down golden chance to reward Mets’ patience

PORT ST. LUCIE — To those who say the Giants, Jets, Knicks and Rangers are asking for too much patience from their fan bases, Sandy Alderson would like you retroactively to hold his beer.

Has any New York sports executive of, let’s say, the past 40 years utilized the simple yet elusive attribute of patience more often than the Mets’ general manager since 2010?

Alderson’s negotiating patience has resulted in sweet deals for the likes of Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce and most recently Todd Frazier, which in turn has created possible payroll flexibility for another free-agent pitcher. His developmental patience allowed Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores to prosper after long apprenticeships. A function partly of Alderson’s natural style and partly of the Mets’ financial limitations, that patience has helped the Mets considerably more than it has hurt.





It very well may be put to its greatest test now — not with the parade of injury-plagued pitchers trying to get the band back together but rather with the two catchers charged with guiding those pitchers to success.

“We’re very comfortable with the two of them together,” Alderson said Monday at First Data Field of Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki. “They’re solid. There are things they don’t do well. There are things they do very well. And I’m talking on the defensive side of things.





“Right now, I’d say they’re both, among 30 or so [catchers], they’re slightly above average, and they have the potential to get better if we give them the opportunity and the support.”

D’Arnaud just turned 29 on Saturday, and Plawecki will turn 27 Feb. 26. These two young men are, well, not very young on the baseball spectrum anymore. The good friends will share the catcher position on this aspirational Mets team, and with that comes a shared burden to erase the questions and concerns surrounding this position for this franchise.

Here at pitchers and catchers reporting day, the two men took part in voluntary workouts and individually said they had little doubt they would receive another shot at getting this right.

“We both finished strong [last season],” d’Arnaud said. “We both played well together.”

“I don’t think that it gave them another choice,” Plawecki said of the pair’s stellar finish amid the ruins of the 2017 Mets.





After the Mets let beloved backup receiver Rene Rivera go to the Cubs on a waiver claim last Aug. 19, Plawecki returned from Triple-A Las Vegas and put up a .303/.411/.474 slash line in 27 games. Prior to that, he had slashed a brutal .206/.256/.278 in 131 games. He attributed his dramatic improvement to finally being comfortable with the pressures of big-league ball in New York.

From Aug. 20 through the end of the season, in 30 games, d’Arnaud went .297/.350/.571, benefiting from a leg kick he added to his batting stance that improved his timing. That elevated his career slash line to a modest .245/.306/.406.

Defensively? While d’Arnaud’s much-discussed struggles with opposing base-stealers remained a problem — he nailed just 11-of-66 attempted thieves, while Plawecki got 6-of-31 — he scored well in defensive metrics thanks to skills like blocking balls and framing pitches. The same went for Plawecki, hence Alderson’s defense of his catchers’ defense. D’Arnaud and Plawecki recently worked in Arizona with Mets catching instructor Glenn Sherlock on receiving and throwing, d’Arnaud said.





Alderson said the Mets conducted a “thorough review” of the catching market this winter, and it was pretty underwhelming, unless you had the prospects to trade for Marlins malcontent J.T. Realmuto, which the Mets don’t. Prospect Thomas Nido represents a near-future option, while the Mets signed veteran Jose Lobaton for insurance.

“It’s good to get back into a squat and get into game shape again,” Plawecki said, the Mets’ patience granting this next chance to realize his (2012) and d’Arnaud’s (2007) first-round-pick potentials. Will the patience pay off? That answer will go a long way toward determining the fate of these Mets, who, Alderson’s patience notwithstanding, definitely are looking to win now.





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