Dwight Hood - To Catch a Backstop: The d'Arnaud Dilemma and Related Mets fan Musings

7 years. 7 years we waited. We waiting for the top catching prospect who came to us with Thor in the R.A. Dickey trade. He played over 100 games only twice in his 7-year Mets tenure. Last April, he would depart, needing Tommy John surgery.  The Mets designated him for assignment late April, and finally released him earlier this week.

PC - Ernest Dove 

Allow me to respectfully alliterate. This is NOT a Diss d’Arnaud Diatribe. This is a symptom of what I think is the greater issue across major league baseball. A catcher that is an exceptional hitter and exceptional defender is very hard to come by.

Keep this in mind, however, that my perspectives are by no means rooted in any sort of objectivity. When you are a kid in the 70’s and you watch Jerry Grote on TV and go see “The Dude” John Stearns at Shea, these guys seem “larger than life” for an 8-year-old. I wasn’t keeping statistics on OPS, RBIs, passed balls, or thinking about WAR (which was not a statistic in the 70’s). I need not go on. I believe we understand where I’m coming from.

Also, PLEASE understand that I am in no way comparing receivers like d’Arnaud, Sasser, Hearn, Plawecki, Buck, and Recker to the likes of Mike Piazza. Our Hall of Fame backstop came to us via a free-agency steal in the late 90s, relegating a promising, power hitting Todd Hundley to 1^st base duties and eventual exodus to LA. Even Piazza was criticized for his less than optimal defensive skills behind the plate.

My point is that, throughout the years, we have seen quite a few players come and go at the catching position. Remember Josh Thole, Dickey’s “personal catcher”? How about Rod Barajas, the “I’m gonna swing as hard as I can when I see an inside fastball and try to pull it just far enough over the fence and just far enough inside the left field foul pole to keep it fair” hitting catcher?

Sorry for the rambling sentence. But, whenever Barajas came to bat, my mind would run on.  I would think, “He seems like a good guy, but when are we going to get a “stud” catcher?

So…get this. Yasmani Grandal, the seeming spectator behind the plate during the 2018 postseason, who kept watching baseballs go past him to the backstop in October, turned down a 4-year, close to 60-million-dollar deal from the Mets.

In retrospect, he could have signed the deal and passed half the money on to me. I digress.

I was listening to Jody MacDonald on WFAN yesterday. He was discussing Gary Sanchez, and the early comparisons to Johnny Bench. Johnny Bench??? Didn’t Sanchez bat below the Mendoza line last year? Wasn’t Joe G always on him about his defense, or lack thereof?

This writing is not meant to disparage any of today’s catchers. The intent of this writing is intended to point out that the team I love, the New York Metropolitans, are still in search of that franchise backstop. I’m sure most of us will concur that we wish Travis d’Arnaud all the best with his baseball journey. I’m sure we can all agree that Ramos needs to rake more, run less, and stop letting balls pass by him.

To catch a backstop….