Back in 2014 and 2015, the plan for 2017 for catcher was d’Arnaud followed by Plawecki. There were times in 2013 and 2014 that the Mets felt flushed at catcher between the two catchers moving up in the system. Plawecki struggled when first called up. At the same time, Rene Rivera went through a resurgence and clearly took the back up (and sometimes starting) role in 2017. But injuries and trades meant Plawecki had to play a bit more although towards the end of the season he and d’Arnaud had to split the time with prospect Nido. Nido will be competing with Plawecki and to a lesser extent d’Arnaud this spring.
| Kevin Plawecki | |||||||||
| PA | AB | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| 2016 | 151 | 365 | 24.00 | 4 | 32 | 0 | 0.211 | 0.287 | 0.285 |
| Projections | |||||||||
| MLB.com | 165 | 14.00 | 4 | 15 | 0 | 0.218 | 0.339 | 0.623 | |
| Steamer | 53 | 5.00 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.226 | 0.321 | 0.614 | |
| ZiPS | 399 | 39.00 | 7 | 42 | 0 | 0.245 | 0.302 | 0.354 | |
| ESPN | 5.00 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.228 | ||||
| Baseball Prospectus | 98 | 10.00 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0.236 | 0.297 | 0.361 | |
| Rotowire | 144 | 9.00 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0.229 | 0.309 | 0.33 | |
| Average | 248.5 | 120.66667 | 13.666667 | 3 | 15.5 | 0 | 0.2303333 | 0.3136 | 0.4564 |
2017 Stats:
37 G, 118 PA, 100 AB, 11 R, 26 H, 5 2B, 3 HR, 13 RBI, .260 BA, .364 OBP, .400 SLG
Plawecki saw quite a bit less playing time if you look at projections that generate PA’s, and not so much if you look at projections that look just at AB’s. They got his power numbers exactly correct for homers, but way over projected his Slugging. He performed way better at OBP and BA.
This will be the story with Plawecki. He didn’t see a lot of action last season but his numbers were better than I expected on review. He’s never hit for power at any level, but he has always hit. If he can continue that this year, the Mets could be in a good spot for catcher, I just don’t see yet how the Mets balance d’Arnaud, Plawecki and Nido (but knowing the Mets they’ll balance it incorrectly at first and then someone will get injured and it won’t matter).
