Kevin Plawecki attended Westfield High School in Indiana, and was an All-State athlete his senior year. He played four years of college baseball at Purdue University, and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2012 Big Ten Conference Tournament, as well as the conference's player of the year in that same season. With the 35th overall selection in the 2012 MLB Amateur draft, the Mets selected the prized catcher with their first round choice. He started off his Mets career with the Single-A club in Savannah, the Sand Gnats, in 2013, before shortly being promoted to the St. Lucie Mets, of Advanced-A ball. He joined the Double-A Binghamton Mets in time for their Class AA Eastern League playoffs.
Plawecki received an invitation to Spring Training this year, 2014, and then returned to the B-Mets, where he hit .326, recording six home runs, and 43 RBIs in 224 at-bats. He will play in the Futures Game this year over All-Star Weekend at Target Field in Minnesota along with Noah Syndergaard, who, if not for a few setbacks in terms of injuries, could have potentially been called up already to make his major-league debut. The Mets wanted to follow a pattern, bringing up a new talented pitcher each year around the middle of June, as they had done in the two previous successfully with Harvey and Wheeler. Now, we'll have to wait and see for his debut. Will it come this year? Still a good chance. But it looks like it'll come in August or September instead. Recently, on June 24, Plawecki was promoted to Triple-A and now starts for the 51ers down in Las Vegas, in the Pacific Coast League. He is a right-handed catcher at 23 years of age.
Now the question becomes, with d'Arnaud finally figuring things out offensively, do you consider trading him in a deal in a year or so down the line? Do you take the bigger risk and start all over developing a starting catcher in Plawecki? Does Kevin get asked to change positions? The latter has been brought up for quite some time, and the logical option is probably first base. The Mets currently have Lucas Duda over there, and of course, they traded away Ike Davis to the Pirates earlier this year. But he's not so proven either. Eric Campbell has seen some time at first this year as well, and the other guy in the minor leagues right now who's had significant major-league playing time, specifically at first, would be Josh Satin. And it's not like Dominic Smith is right around the corner already, but yeah I suppose he can have a quicker development and then Plawecki could be locked into a bad situation if he needed to come up, but okay, no one is proven until they tap into developing in the major leagues. We aren't going to wait to be good at these positions over the next through years and go with the philosophy that we can sign run-of-the-mill free agents to fill spaces before the "prized picks are ready to start". No, for Smith, he goes to first base when? Probably no sooner than the 2017 season. More like 2018.
Plawecki and d'Arnaud are both offensive catchers, although Plawecki has a larger, stronger frame according to some scouts. So, it is just a waiting game, just like everything else has been with the Mets since 2006. We haven't been back yet, Wright is getting older, fans are getting restless, and we keep being guaranteed the product on the field isn't the problem. Yeah, pretty sure that's why we are nine games under! No, we're under .500 because we want to have another year going 74-88. Come on! We need to at least be 81-81, and that's not even dazzling AT ALL! That's not New York baseball. That isn't tolerated in the biggest media market in the world, arguably, where they pick at you in every front page, back page, adn every sports page in between. I really like Plawecki, but I don't want to give up another offensive talent if d'Arnaud stays this hot, or at least, bottoms out as what he was advertised to be from Toronto: a strong, numbers-producing offensive backstop.
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8 comments:
Interesting article on Plawecki situation. But IMO, Dominic Smith is a different breed of cat - just turned 19, yes, but hitting almost .350 since late April. Why couldn't he be ready for opening day 2016? Or mid 2016 if needed. A lot faster than Mets' normal promotional speed, but he is proving to be a very special hitter. Look at how fast Bryce Harper came up. I am hoping he gets to St Lucie soon - he's ready.
Seems to me like a great situation where the Mets will have a major trade chip. But that's a year or so away which gives plenty of time to evaluate.
Moving Plawecki over to 1B pretty much destroys any value he has.
There are so many .280 AVG, 15 HR 1Bman in baseball but there are few of those stat lines at C.....the elite 1B are the 30, 40, 50 HR guys.
It would be a waste of a prospect to move him there especially when he wouldn't outperform Duda.
If d'Arnaud is truly finally finding his way and can reach his peak....then just trade away Plawecki as a high value Catcher as the centerpiece for a SS.
I agree with soto, trade chip for sure if D'arnaud keeps doing what he is doing. I would wait til next year though so his stock will rise a bit more, when he will be in almost every top 50 prospect list.
Right now, Duda is doing quite well at 1B vs. righty pitchers. Lefties have never been his forte. Campbell is a perfect guy vs. the lefties - for now.
Maybe they don't need to trade Plawecki to get where they need to be - then, you'd have d'Arnaud and Plawecki as catchers. Should Plawecki become the 1B vs lefties, then d'Arnaud and Plawecki would get to start about 200 games per year combined. That, plus pinch hitting, would get each around 425-450 at bats a year. It would be awesome to have a fresh #1 caliber catcher for all 162 games - that approach could get you there. Maybe the best 162 game catching in baseball next year.
Of course, if the right trade scenario surfaced, say Plawecki, Reynolds and Montero (and perhaps someone else) for Tulowitski, the above plan would go out the window.
I was thinking jsut this morning with d'Arnaud's concussion issues, would the Mets want to consider moving him to another position down the road should KP emerge as a top 50? I know its a different direction, but we have to consider the possiblity of dNA being another serious head injury away from a real league issue
I have heard, off and on, that the Mets were going to try and convert Plawecki either to the outfield or first base.
I also have seen with my own eyes him taking field practice at first base, but I was told not to take that serious.
I think, like d'Arnaud, that he's a catcher, true and true and, at major league standards, around average in the field.... which is okay if he hits.
My assumption is he will hit in Vegas and then will be moved by the Mets.
Plawecki is going to be a major trade chip for the Mets.
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