Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who’d previously been diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, the team announced on Friday.
Additionally, the Mets placed Kevin Plawecki on the 10-day DL due to a hairline fracture in his left hand, selected the contract of Jose Lobaton from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned out righty Jacob Rhame in place of outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
To make room on the 40-man roster for Lobaton, d’Arnaud was placed on the 60-day DL. Plawecki is expected to be out three to four weeks, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post).
Suffice it to say, it’s been a devastating 48 hours for the Mets, who just days ago were counting on d’Arnaud and Plawecki to shoulder the entirety of their catching work in 2018. Now, they’ll be without Plawecki for perhaps a month’s time, while d’Arnaud will be lost for the whole season. In their stead, the Mets will turn to Lobaton and Double-A backstop Tomas Nido to handle immediate catching duties. Lobaton is in tonight’s lineup.
However, for a club that started 10-1, the Mets understandably aren’t keen on merely relying on depth pieces and journeyman stopgaps as they await the return of Plawecki, who, while he has shown promise in the past, is no sure bet for a productive campaign.
To that end, the Mets are already on the lookout for catching help, per multiple reports. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets that a small-scale move — something along the lines of a pickup of recently designated veteran Miguel Montero — could be in play for the Mets. FanRag’s Jon Heyman, meanwhile, tweets that the Mets are “seriously” looking at adding a catcher, though GM Sandy Alderson, at least publicly, spoke to the contrary (Twitter links via DiComo and Puma).
Alderson indicated that his club will “be aware” of what is available on the catching market but is not actively pursuing a Major League catching addition. Puma notes that Alderson did suggest that trades are more plausible early this season than in other years because of the number of teams that “aren’t trying that hard.”
One move that seems decidedly unlikely is a swap for J.T. Realmuto. DiComo and Newsday’s Tim Healey have both thrown significant cold water on the possibility, downplaying the notion that the Mets would be able to put together a sufficient package and also downplaying the Marlins’ willingness to move him. Healey notes that the Mets and Marlins haven’t spoken about Realmuto at all this week, noting that offseason talks for the star catcher failed to gain any traction.
More emphatically, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com tweets that the Marlins don’t have any intention of dealing Realmuto while he’s rehabbing from injury and, in the grander scope of things, don’t even plan on making him available at all this season. It seems that the Fish would prefer to hold Realmuto through the end of the 2018 season and market him again next winter when a wider base of clubs could likely inquire about his services. Of course, such plans can always change at the deadline if a few contenders find themselves with an acute need, thus creating the basis for a bidding war, but for the time being it doesn’t sound as if a Realmuto trade is even worth speculating upon.
As far as depth options go, the Mets have already acted quickly to pursue one such addition. Former Mets backstop Johnny Monell announced today on Instagram that he’s signed a new minor league deal with the team and will return to the club. The 32-year-old logged 57 plate appearances for the 2015 Mets and is a lifetime .278/.350/.460 hitter in parts of five seasons in Triple-A, which is where he’ll be headed.
there goes the mets season
Because the great start has hinged on the catchers?
Look, any team is hurt by losing top 2 catchers. But this is very survivable.
It is not survivable if the Mets do not trade for a catcher who can hit at least above 230, and can throw some base runners out. Jose Lobaton is a great defensive catcher when catching the ball but he has a terrible arm. The Mets for some Godforsaken reason are not starting Nido, and are depending on Lobaton. If they are not giving Nido a chance to play in the Majors then send him back to the minors so he can work on his catching and hitting. Alderson is very bizarre cuz he needs to get two catchers on board who even if they can’t hit they should be able to throw runners out along with catching and framing the ball well. For F sake, here are the catchers that are available via DFA: Miguel Montero, Cameron Rupp and Chris Stewart. Wilson Ramos is available via trade with the Rays. The longer the Mets let Jose Lobaton catch with his 070 average, and who cannot throw the ball whereas Plawecki and d’Arnaud look like Johnny Bench and Jerry Grote in regards to the very poor way Lobaton throws. Plus the Mets knew the guy couldn’t throw the ball when they signed him. So either Alderson is a complete imbecile or he needs to be prescribed some sort of super amphetamine so he can wake up and try to address this latest Mets nightmare. He also needs to find one or two decent relievers as Swarzak has what seems to be a never ending injury so he needs to be replaced. Call up Conlon from Vegas as his stuff does not pitch well in Las Vegas but the kid can pitch. The Mets need another lefty reliever, and he might be what they are looking for. Try Mickey Jannis who is also suffering in Vegas. I watched him pitch in 2017 in Binghamton, and his knuckler was really good. Put him in the bullpen, and see if he can’t give one or two innings when the team is in need. The Mets really do not have any other bullpen options. Hell. They have already converted Conlon to a reliever. Bring him up, and see what happens. Everything else with the bullpen has become very turbulent. Harvey has to be sent to Vegas as Vargas is ready to return. Vargas is a consistently decent pitcher which is more then Harvey as at this time. S__t. Let him see if he can find the way back to pitching well in AAA. I really love Jose Reyes but he really needs to retire. Guillorme is not hitting but neither is Evans or McNeil. The Mets might be able to wait until TJ Rivera returns in May but they will still need a SS. Bring up AAA utility man Kelly who plays a decent SS, and let him play SS until either Guillorme, Evans or McNeil start to hit. All these guys were SS until the Mets switched their positions. Rosario needs to go to Vegas cuz his is just not hitting. The Mets need to make changes and quickly before they start to fall off the MLB mountain.
The Mets are not able to acquire JT Realmuto because they simply do not have the trade pieces whether they be prospects or players. The Mets are better off looking for a good defensive catcher who can at least hit in the 240 range. I think they might be interested in someone like Blake Swihart as he is a decent defensive player but it is unclear if he possesses the arm strength to throw runners out which is what the Mets really need considering how much teams run on them. So taking Swihart out of the equation the Devil Rays do have a starting catcher that they might look at trading to the Mets for a prospect or two. I think maybe Domonic Smith and another pitching prospect might get the deal done. Jose Lobaton is a good pitch framer, and can catch the ball but he is not good at throwing runners out. Right now the Mets need to give Nido a chance to see if his good defense can carry them past his well known hitting struggles. Even with Nido becoming the primary Mets catcher they need a back up guy. Since the Mets front office tends to be somewhat brain cell deficient they might really want to play Phillip Evans at the catching position for the next month or so to see if he can’t acclimatize himself to the position. Evans can hit plus he has a strong arm so playing him in AAA/Vegas at catcher on a daily basis makes a lot if sense so thereby look at the Mets to forego this notion. Trading for Blake Swihart now makes some sense since he can be Nido’s back up catcher until the Mets look at someone on one of their minor league teams like a Joe Domino who might not be ready yet but in an emergency situation you have to make due with what you have.
Damn it. The Mets just can’t catch a break. Sorry Mets fans.
“More to come”
Are you referring to more injuries or more information? With the Mets I just never know
Steve,
Why not link this to the prior article to keep the comments together?
Because Jeff wrote the other article and he refuses to share his lavish royalty income with Steve.
I see. That explains those annoying job opportunity threads that appeared a while back. Looks like one made money posting those links while the other must have been paid handsomely for getting rid of them…
There was a pretty big cavalcade of info here, and the Mets announced it all at once. Could’ve bumped either the “d’Arnaud has torn UCL” post or the “Plawecki broken hand” post.
Considering the Mets confirmed TDA’s Tommy John, placed Plawecki on the DL, selected a new player to the 40-man, made another option-related move, and there were new rumors about what the Mets might do at catcher, it seemed best to condense it all into one post with all the latest info.
I recognize that that may not seem intuitive to everyone, but that’s how we viewed it.
D’arnaud hurt again. Big surprise there.
I hope he recovers and can have a successful career, but I really hope the Mets finally cut their losses with him and move on. It’s higjly unlikely he becomes a reliable, and formidable starter in the majors, let’s move on.
Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.The met catching has been sub par for some time now.Baserunners have run with reckless abandon against them for years.Nido is a strong defensive catcher with a strong arm and Lobaton is ok.offense is not their strong suit,but calling a good game and controlling the running will be a welcome addition.
I wonder if Mgr. Mickey C now pushes the Mets to go get 1 of the guys he was used to working with in Cleveland (Gomes or Perez). Cost to acquire has to be less than going after JT and you wouldn’t have to deal with a divison rival..
Straight up swap: Carson Kelly for Noah Syndergaard. Lol
Foolish (or more like cheap) for anyone to count on TdA for anything other than an inability to field his position and getting hurt (no, it’s not bad luck when it happens every year). He lacks so many essentials to be a starting MLB catcher (even a poor one) that this can’t be put in the bad luck (excuse) category.
Austin Hedges straight up, for an autographed ball from Bobby Valentine
Crazy. Even the Mets’ position players are now getting TJ surgery..
Maybe they can trade for Drew Butera.
How do non pitchers get this injury?
By throwing a ball overhand multiple times.
it’s more common than you think
“How do non pitchers get this injury?” Anyone who throws overhand is susceptible. Throwing overhand is not a natural motion for humans. Most don’t realize it but a torn UCL is also common among javelin throwers and is know as “javelin elbow” or “Javelin arm:”
I hear Mike Piazza’s still available. 😀