James McCann's wrist injury means the Mets just took a hit at their most vulnerable position.
The Mets have just suffered a serious injury setback with the news that catcher James McCann suffered a fractured hamate bone in his left wrist and will miss around 6 weeks. The lack of depth at catcher has been a concern since the spring, and 6 weeks is a large chunk of the baseball season. McCann wasn't producing much offensively but seemed to be coming around a bit before this injury.
While Tomás Nido is a more than capable substitute defensively, his offensive production is woeful. This season, Nido has a slash line of .204/.200/.245, good for an OPS+ of 31. Nido made changes to his swing that looked promising in minimal action in 2020, but his combined slash line in 2021 and this season is .218/.246/.307 with an OPS+ of 54. That's actually a few ticks worse than Doug Flynn's career OPS+ of 58.
Of course, in McCann's absence, Tomás Nido doesn't need to produce much offense to make him valuable to the Mets. What's more worrisome is that his backup will be Patrick Mazeika. Mazeika was a nice story for about 5 minutes in 2021 with a couple of game-winning swinging bunts, but his OPS+ was 44 over 87 plate appearances, and he was a sub-par receiver. Manager Buck Showalter keeps his players fresh by giving them off days, but he probably would want to give Mazeika as few starts as possible in McCann's absence.
Outside of the improbable chance that Patrick Mazeika has made significant improvements as a catcher and at the plate since last year, it seems likely that the Mets will need to find a better backup catcher on baseball's scrap heap. Neither of the catchers left in Syracuse, Nick Dini or Nick Meyer, offers significant MLB experience. From what I read, Meyer is a more likely promotion than Dini. Whether the Mets see enough upside to merit giving him a spot on the 40-man roster is a question only they can answer.
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3 comments:
Well, Nido had a hit and walk last night, so the Mets wasted an offensive explosion from him.
Alvarez sadly has not hit, although he is shaking off his doldrums a bit of late. Maybe in a month, if he can grasp the opportunity and Mazeika/Nido is a bust, and McCann turns out to more likely miss 8-10 weeks, it could be Alvarez time.
Once again, though, an injury hits the Mets early, before the heir apparent prospect is ready.
Thanks, I needed a laugh today and your "offensive explosion" line cracked me up.
I hope that Alvarez doesn't get a call up. I'd rather see him playing every day in the minors. You're right, though. I can see them taking a chance on promoting him in the scenario you outlined above
Kelenic shows the folly of promoting hitters too early, so as eager as I am to see Alvarez in Queens, patience is required.
Nick Meyer? Who knows.
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