If you hear Mets coaches, players, sportscasters etc talking about Colton this spring, they aren’t talking about the current season of the Bachelor, their talking about Colton Plaia, one of seven catchers in Mets camp.
Colton was drafted by the 33rd round of the 2012 draft but went back for another year at Loyola Marymount and was drafted by the Mets in the 15th round the following year. He’s been in the Mets system since then and has never been younger than the average age at any playing level.
His best season was in 2015 with St Lucie where he had 311 PA’s slashing a .285/.342/.347. He then played in Binghamton for two years before getting to Vegas last year. With Vegas last year he had 222 PA’s slashing .255/.332/.474, showing more pop than he ever had in the minors (9 of 17 career homers). He’ll be fighting this spring to maintain his spot with the Triple A club where we’ll see if his jump in power was due to playing in Vegas or his approach at the plate.
It feels like he has an NRI because he’s at a crossroad age wise. He has played moderately well for a catcher at every level from Brooklyn up in the Mets system, with the last spot being Queens. The problem for Colton: Ramos, d’Arnaud, Mesoraco, and Nido are all in front of him. Mazeika is right behind him for a back up catcher role and the Mets also have Ali Sanchez as catching prospect who should get the bulk of the time wherever he ends up.
The question about Plaia has been his pop, which he found last year. He’s so far down the Mets depth chart he’s not even competing for a roster spot but a spot on Syracuse’s roster depending on how things shape up. But if the Mets decide to trade d’Arnaud (thus moving Mesoraco to back up backstop) then Plaia and Mazeika will be directly competing to back up Nido in Syracuse.
