MACK - MY Analysis: Mets Chain Catchers - MY Sunday Observations

 

Good morning 

First... Happy Easter.

Yeah, I know. My posts keep being moved around more than Brett Baty. Do writers have options? Can I run out of them and stay put? Anyway… my Tuesday Observation most is now my Monday Morning Report. There will be a quiz on this next Friday.

I thought I would start this week’s Monday/Thursday/Sunday (do I got that right, fellas?) posts with my current thoughts on the current chain growth, by position, starting with…

Catchers.

Right now, the catcher situation in the chain is extremely solid and downright exciting.

There are four names to remember. The first, 18-year old Yovanny Rodriguez (A – 2024 class - $2.85mil bonus), has not played a lick so far this season. The big bonus baby had a tepid year last season for the Mets DSL Orange team – 146-AB, .219-BA. A bright sign was only 34 strikeouts in 181 plate appearances. 30-BB. .359-OBP. Hopefully, we will see him playing soon in Florida.

Let’s go right to Mr. Excitement… 21/year old Chris Suero (A+ - 2022 class – a mere 10K bonus - NYM)) is currently tearing up at the A+ level. As of end of business Saturday, Suero has five home runs and 6 doubles in 44 at-bats, which has resulted in a stat line of  .296/.380/.773/1.153.

He’s playing on the same team as the next guy we are going to discuss, but Suero’s versatility (catcher, leftfielder, first baseman) will push him to AA well before the all-star break.

Frankly, his ETA is, conservatively, opening day 2027. Where he plays someday is, frankly, determined on which Met resigns (Pete Alonso), or which other Mets produce (Jeff McNeil, Francisco Alvarez.

Next up is one of my favorites, 21-year old Ronald Hernandez (A+ - 2021 class - $850K bonus - Miami). This is the “other” Cyclone catcher. Not as versatile as Suero but he can play first and has cred as a DH. Currently, he isn’t getting much playtime is off to a slow start. Hit .271 in 351-AB last season for St. Lucie… 5-HR, 41-RBI). My hopes he would develop more this season as the Brooklyn catcher, but a guy named Suero has different plans for that.

My guess going forward is Hernandez will bide his time waiting for Suero to graduate, but don’t wait too long to get moving because there is another guy right behind you that could keep you as the backup Cyclones catcher all season.

And that would be 19/year old  Daiverson Guiterrez (A – 2023 class - $1.9mil bonus - NYM who is this year’s starting catcher for St. Lucie. So far, so good for DG:

34-AB   .294-BA  

Guiterrez had a combined .831-OPS last season for three teams (DSL/FCL/St. Lucie). That’s good, right? He’s young so there is no reason to rush him so he may play the entire season in Florida.

Is there anyone else?

Helium alert: 

22/yr old St. Lucie C/1B Vincent Perozo (A – 2019 class - $750K – NYM) –

19/yr old C/1B/3B Julio Zayas (In Camp – 2023 class  $1mil – NYM) - .239 for FCL Mets in 2024,

(BTW… Kevin Parada isn’t biting the bullet again this season. Hell, he can’t even find the bullet. He is no longer relevant when we discuss potential major league catchers)

In summary – Easily, the deepest talent pool of any field position. Alvy needs to start hitting NOW and stay hitting, season after season, if he wants to remain the starting catcher for the New York F…ing Mets.

15 Best NY Mets Blogs and Websites in 2025

https://bloggers.feedspot.com/ny_mets_blogs/?feedid=2000&_src=f1_featured_email

5. Mack's Mets

Mack's Mets

Blog http://macksmets.blogspot.com/  

Keep up to date with the Mets news, analysis and much more.

Mets sign 20 of 23 picks in this year's Draft

https://www.mlb.com/news/mets-2023-draft-signings-tracker

CB-A (32): Colin Houck, SS, Parkview HS (GA)

Pick value: $2,607,500

Signing bonus: $2,750,000

Houck, 18, was named the 2022-2023 Georgia Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year after leading Parkview High School to the Class 7A State Finals in 2023. The Lilburn, GA native batted .487 with eight home runs, 50 RBI, 16 stolen bases and posted a .587 OBP this past season. The No. 12 prospect according to MLB Pipeline and the No. 21 prospect according to Baseball America, Houck became the fourth-ever player from Parkview High School selected in the first round of the First-Year Player Draft joining 12-year veteran OF Jeff Francouer (2002, 23rd overall), All-Star 1B Matt Olson (2012, 47th overall) and INF Josh Hart (2013, 37th overall).

The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder is also a three-star quarterback recruit and received several offers from Power 5 programs after throwing for 2,189 yards and 24 touchdowns during his senior season. Prior to signing with the Mets, Houck was committed to play baseball at Mississippi State.

"It's a dream come true for sure," Houck said at Citi Field after signing.

Ranking All 30 MLB Teams' Homegrown Talent for the 2025 Season

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25180073-ranking-all-30-mlb-teams-homegrown-talent-2025-season

13. New York Mets

Top 5 Homegrown Players

1. 1B Pete Alonso

2. OF Brandon Nimmo

3. 3B Mark Vientos

4. C Francisco Alvarez

5. LHP David Peterson

The Rest: IF Brett Baty, RHP José Buttó, IF Ronny Mauricio, IF/OF Jeff McNeil, RHP Tylor Megill, RHP Dedniel Núñez, C Hayden Senger, RHP Christian Scott (60-day IL)

Quick Thoughts: The Mets have given long-term deals to homegrown hitters Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil, and there is a case to be made that Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos Pete could be playing their way toward extensions of their own. They have been less successful on the pitching side of things, though David Peterson broke through last year with a 2.90 ERA in 121 innings.

Justin Hagenman –

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6285741/2025/04/16/mets-justin-hagenman-mlb-debut-scout-stroke/

Hagenman, 28, was the Dodgers’ 23rd-round pick out of Penn State in 2018. His $75,000 signing bonus was a relative pittance compared to what top picks command. But after seven years in the minors, he struck out three of his first four hitters in his first appearance for the Mets and held down 3 1/3 innings as a bulk reliever. The only run charged to him in a 4-3, extra-innings loss to the Minnesota Twins came after he left the game in the fifth inning.

Hagenman rose to Triple A with the Dodgers, but before the 2023 trade deadline was sent to the Boston Red Sox as part of a package for super-utility man Kiké Hernández. He became a minor-league free agent at the end of last season when the Red Sox did not include him on their 40-man roster. The Mets signed him to a major-league contract on Nov. 18 that pays him a prorated $850,000 while he is on their roster.

 

MLB bat path metrics, speed training, fitting tech: Is hitting finally catching up? –

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6270614/2025/04/17/mlb-bat-path-metrics-speed-training-tech/

Last year, we asked other teams what Baltimore was doing so well in hitting development. Teams mentioned bat speed training, “short box” competitive batting practices, and scouting for bat path — and several teams were already trying to mimic those efforts themselves. Then the Yankees’ torpedo bat craze hit the airwaves, and players and teams clamored for information and new bats, even though the bats had been around for a year or two. This week, the Orioles publicly announced a partnership with a Johns Hopkins computer science laboratory that will use computer vision to better customize bats for their players.

This Week in Mets: Three early thoughts for the first 15 games

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6277444/2025/04/14/this-week-in-mets-three-early-thoughts/

Kodai Senga’s start on Sunday set a standard

Senga sliced through the Athletics on Sunday, eliciting early weak contact to efficiently work through seven innings — the first time any Mets starter saw the seventh this season, and only the third in 15 games that finished even the sixth inning.

Entering Sunday, New York starters were averaging an even five innings per start — better than just three other teams in the NL. (That the two major-league teams averaging the fewest innings from their starters are the Dodgers and Padres suggests it’s too early to make a fuss here, as well.) And to this point, no Mets starter has thrown more than 91 pitches in a game; they’re being especially cautious with the workloads.

The expectation is that the Mets follow last year’s blueprint. In the first 80 games of the 2024 season, a Mets starter finished the seventh inning just five times. In the next 80, it happened 21 times, as New York became more comfortable leaning on Sean Manaea and Luis Severino and Jose Quintana and David Peterson. To allow the bullpen to sustain some approximation of its current production, the Mets will need that dynamic to play out again — and probably sooner, considering they’re likely to spend more time this season in a six-man rotation (and a shorter bullpen) than they did last year.

Jim Koenigsberger            @Jimfrombaseball 

"Sandy Koufax's  curve had a lot more spin than anybody else's, it spun like a fastball coming out of his hand and Koufax had the fastball of a pure strikeout pitcher. It jumped up at the end. The batter would swing half a foot  under it. Most of the time we knew what was coming,

Ernie Banks

 

"I had dinner with Mickey one night. It was in January in New York, and it was really cold. We were walking back to the Regency Hotel, where we both were staying, and I had noticed that Mickey had asked for a doggie bag for his dinner in the restaurant--which was sort of strange.

Anyway, he asks me to take a walk with him. Now this wasn't the kind of night where you wanted to take a stroll, but I went along, over to Madison Avenue, where he knew this homeless guy who was in a cardboard box. Mantle knocks on the cardboard and suddenly this guy pops up his head. He looks frightened--and frightening--not knowing who's there, and suddenly when he sees us, the guy's face softens. He says, 'Oh, hi, Mick.' And Mantle  hands him his dinner. It was clear to me he had done this many times before.

Did it mean that Mickey Mantle was the greatest humanitarian in the world?  No, just that that was part of him, just as an hour later he could have been drunk in a bar and told some very nice autograph seeker to go f***  himself."

Bob Costas