The Mets have only two catchers on the 40-man roster, so there is an open competition right now to be the “third” catcher if needed. The Mets have brought in four catchers as non-roster invitees to major league camp. Two catchers are current Mets prospects (Kevin Parada, Hayden Senger), one catcher is a former prospect for the Twins and never made it to the majors (Chris Williams). Then there is Jakson Reetz, the only catcher in camp as an NRI with major league experience, even thought it was real brief.
Reetz was a third round draft pick of the Washington Nationals back in 2014. He got into two games with the Nationals in 2021 and was released at the end of the 2021 season. After that he bounced around a bunch of organizations going to the Brewers, Royals (twice) and the Giants (twice). He got another cup of coffee with the Giants last season.
Over six games in the majors last season he hit .143/.200/.429 (75 OPS+) over an extremely small sample size of 15 plate appearances. He was solid at the plate last season in the PCL hitting .254/.368/.432 over 235 PA’s, which is honestly fine.
Jakson’s best season in the minors was in 2022 where he hit 30 home runs while slashing .264/.359/.575 (.934 OPS), most of the damage happening with the Brewers Double A teams. Of course, David Stearns was the GM of the Brewers at that time. We’ve seen this multiple times over the last couple of years where Stearns has moved get a player he really likes back from Brewers organization (Tyrone Taylor being the best example of this).
You’ll notice something interesting if you look at Jakson’s fielding stats in the minors. He’s not just a catcher – he’s also an outfielder. He only played one game and one inning in the outfield in 2024, but in 2023 he played in the outfield about a third of the time.
Being the veteran option means that Jakson will see himself on the major league roster at some point this season (or at least brought up to Queens on days when the Mets aren’t sure about the availability of Alvarez or Torrens). He doesn’t project as a long time solution for catcher if something happens, but in some ways feels more appealing than rolling the dice with Parada or Senger if they end up struggling at the plate in the minors.
Here’s what we are looking for this spring when it comes to Jakson Reetz:
- Do the Mets play him in the outfield?
- Who does Reetz catch? How deep into March does Reetz start games? Can we make a judgment call about his depth chart position from this?
- Does he hit close to his .799 Triple A OPS this spring?
