The Mets are looking for another catcher, and veteran free agent Tyler Flowers is among the names they have discussed, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports.
The Mets’ first-string spot behind the plate belongs to James McCann, whom they signed to a four-year, $40.6MM contract in free agency. Tomas Nido is slated to begin the season as the club’s backup, but the 26-year-old has typically posted woeful offensive numbers. Patrick Mazeika, the other catcher on the Mets’ 40-man roster, is a 27-year-old who hasn’t played above Double-A ball to this point. The Mets also have vets Caleb Joseph and Bruce Maxwell on hand as non-roster invitees, though their track records in the majors pale in comparison to Flowers’.
Formerly a member of the White Sox and Braves, Flowers, 35, has mixed high-grade pitch-framing skills with passable offense over the past several seasons. He ended his five-year Braves tenure with a .251/.349/.408 batting line (good for a 102 wRC+) in 1,381 plate appearances, but he hit a less impressive .217/.325/.348 last year while playing second fiddle to ex-Met Travis d’Arnaud.
I’ve wanted to them to bring in a veteran backup all offseason. Flowers would be a solid pickup.
I’m glad someone is giving Flowers a chance. In 2019 he hit 11 home runs as a back-up catcher. In 2017 he hit 12 home runs and batted over .280 as a back-up catcher. I know he probably isn’t what he used to be but the weird 2020 season could have easily effected his production just as much as it did guys like Lindor and Arenado. It probably effected Flowers even more since he is a bench player. If Lindor gets a 2020 pass, Flowers should get one too. His pitch framing is still good and he is a great teammate. The fact that he has the slight potential to hit double-digit homers out of the back-up catcher spot should get him a job by itself. Especially since he is a decent defender and won’t cost much on a 1-year deal.
Flowers might honestly be one of the most underrated and underappreciated players in the league. The dude is a solid professional.
As a Braves fan, I’ll miss him.
Yeah but can he hit?
He was part of some pretty good platoons with Kurt Suzuki and Brian McCann the first few years he was with the Braves, but not anymore. Great teammate, great handler of pitchers, good framer, but he’s strictly a backup at this point.
For a backup? Yes. But he brings a few more things to the team than just that. He’s def useful.
Dude plays the catcher position and is only able to field about 12% of throws to the plate.
Agreed!!!
A true good backup
Was he with a team this spring? The Mets would probably have to DFA Nido because he’s out of options.
It would be great if they could get Flowers on a Minor League deal, and stash him in AAA til June 1…let’s see if Nido improved his offense at all.
I do like Tyler Flowers, but the Mets have a great guy in Nido as a backup already. Yes, catching depth is key, and I honestly hope they sign him, but I want Nido to make it just out of bias. He’s a great teammate and he mini-bursted onto the scene last season (granted it needs to be taken with a grain of salt).
Nido went 3-3 today a triple shy of cycle. I watch most Mets games and he seems to have turned a corner in regards to his hitting. He probably won’t be great but I feel comfortable saying he’ll probably give the same kind of performance or better than Flowers could give.
Captain kirk hit 3 hr in a mlb game. I mean everyone has a good day every once in a while. I dont see Nido getting to be more than a Rene Rivera type catcher solid defense and personal catcher with an every once in a while big hit. If McCann were to miss any length of time Nido being your everyday catcher will be a big detriment to the lineup, You could do it but should you if you can have someone that can and has been the guy to step in for a short length and be your starter.
Personally i was hoping they would sign molina to a not more than 2 yr 16 mil deal and have a 50/50 with mccann and molina. This way they both get good rest and then your top catching prospect learns from 2 damn good catchers with one being a potential HoF. Then at the end of molina contract you move the prospect into the split and eventual starting catcher. Nido makes great depth especially with the older molina.
Hey, Rangers29. I am trying to start an online fantasy baseball league for MLBTR commenters. I would love for you to join. It’s going to be snake draft on ESPN. Would you like to partake?
Sorry man, I’m way too busy with my current endeavors as is, and if I added fantasy baseball to that mix I feel that I would get way too engaged in it and start neglecting my other stuff. Thanks for the offer, and one day I will join a league, but as of now, no thanks.
Hey BrittinghamSports, if you can find 10 others I’m willing to join a MLBTR fantasy baseball league
I think Nido is out If Flowers signs.
A few million for a quality backup and someone who could handle a starting role if McCann gets hurt. Sign me up.
I like Flowers as a back-up but “a few million” would be a massive overpay at this point. I wouldn’t offer him anything more than $1 million guaranteed. He has had great years as a back-up but he is still a 35+ year old low batting average hitter who only hit 1 home run last season. He also isn’t great at throwing out baserunners. If the Mets have “a few million” to spend they could get more value elsewhere. Shane Greene or Rick Porcello might be worth a few million. Tyler Flowers is not. I wish Flowers the best but he was definitely not worth the prorated $4 million that the Braves paid him last year. I would rather have a Triple-A catcher and $2+ million extra to spend over Tyler Flowers.
I hate big mega contracts but on the other hand I’d have no problem giving a guy like Flowers as much as 3 million. Age aside, he’s an upgrade over Nido and it’s just a one year deal.
Do you know if the Mets are even considering Porcello (lol) or Greene? Or that signing Flowers for $3M would preclude the Mets from moving on one of the other two?
I don’t know either of those things. I am pretty confident that the Mets are definitely NOT considering paying Tyler Flowers “a few million.” If the Mets sign Flowers it would be for much less than $2 million. He would get $1 million anywhere else. Maybe because the Mets have money they will pay him $1.25 million. I was more or less just balking at the fact that anyone would think Tyler Flowers is worth “a few million” in this market. I think Flowers would be a good pick up for the Mets and I think if they sign him it will be for less than half of the “few million” PitcherMeRolling suggested Flowers was worth.
We disagree, I can live with that.
Oh, damn. I just now realized you are pitchermerolling. What I mean is Flowers will help your team and he will cost your team a lot less than you think. No other team in MLB is willing to pay Tyler Flowers “a few million” so your team won’t have to either. It’s good news.
There is a shortage of decent Catchers in MLB.
Flowers is 35 years old and has been in the bigs for 12 years. He’s not going to ride busses in AAA. He wants to play, but I doubt he wants the grind of starting – sharing the catching duties in Atlanta kept him from deteriorating physically.
My guess is that he’ll wait around for the inevitable injuries, and then plow through the offers to take one with a contender where he can start 2-4 times a week. He’ll get more money waiting then signing today.
–
This Flowers rumor reminds me of the one 2 weeks ago about the Mets being “interested” in Franco to play 3B. That one proved to be nonsense.
I agree Samuel. Flowers is a MLB backup catcher. Probably zero chance he settles for a minor league contract. There are far worse options out there.
Why sign a guy at 35 and have to get rid of a guy who is a good backup at 26?
If that is the case, bad move. If they can get flowers on minor deal OK
Who is the good back up? Nido? He’s horrible. Check out his career OPS+… Flowers is a clear upgrade.
No one that knows anything at all about baseball judges a backup catcher by his offensive numbers since you’re never using him as a PH. And on top of that Nido is an excellent backup bc the pitchers who’ve thrown to him prefer him over every single catcher the Mets have had in the same time frame. If Flowers is signed… Nido is still the backup catcher and Flowers will be used more for his bat and bc the Mets have probably already figured out that McCann is not the hitter he looked like with the White Sox and is in fact the hitter he’s been everywhere before Chicago which makes Flowers a better starter than McCann
Well, in my world an OPS+ of 49 (!) is basically unplayable.
Wait..,. What?
Lol buyers remorse on McCann already…. bc Nido doesn’t have to hit a lick to keep his spot considering how much the pitchers love him
The Mets need to sign Flowers and yes, he is gonna play. I have told you guys before that I love me some James McCann, but McCann is a 40-60 game guy. He is NOT productive on a full-time basis. Loved him with the White Sox as a backup. There is a reason why the White Sox inked Yasmani Grandal to what was the biggest contract in franchise history at the the time. We inked Grandal the offseason right after McCann made the All-Star team. Look at the All-Star year. First part of the season McCann was solid. Team was bad. He was our rep. 2nd half numbers tanked. Numbers picked up again last year. You know, the 60-game season that he only played 30 games in. You guys gave him 4 years and 40 million after that. Lol. Remember, the Detroit Tigers cut this guy 3 years ago.
Excellent points!
When I saw the 4 year contract the Mets gave McCann, I thought for sure that Brodie Van Wagenen was still running the franchise.
–
Makes me wonder – if the Mets were interested in Flowers to share the Catching position and they could get him for the $1.4m he made in Atlanta the last few years (prorated in 2020), why wouldn’t they do it then? So now they’re going to pay one guy $10m and another $1.4m to share a position? Think McCann is going to accept that? LOL
And Realmuto cost how much more than what the Mets are gonna end up paying all these dudes??? Mets could have got Wilson Contreras done in a trade with the Cubs. I know ….. the Mets don’t want to trade any kids …. Mets could have got Contreras without giving up any kids. All they had to do was take Craig Kimbrel and the last year of the horrific contract that Theo Epstein signed him to when nobody else was swimming in that water. I keep hearing about all this money that Steve Cohen has to spend.
@Samuel – The epically bad short stint of Brodie running the Mets was one of the more underreported stories in baseball.
McCann has been outstanding behind the plate and with the bat this spring. There is no world in which Flowers would start in front of a healthy McCann.
@dwightgoodenspinky – Wait until you see a healthy James McCann after playing 60 games before making proclamations like “there is no world in which Flowers would start in front of McCann”.
You don’t bring me Flowers anymore.
He had such little chatter about him, I kind of forgot he was a free agent. How is he not signed?
I’m honestly surprised that with all the teams in need of Catching over the winter that Flowers didn’t get a chance anywhere to this point. He would definitely be an upgrade over Nido/Joseph/Maxwell
Does anyone know if Russell Martin officially retired?
Officially? No. Unofficially? Yes. Russell is one of thousands of players to be unceremoniously retired by the league when teams stop calling.
Wait..,. What?
Jbc1972… Not to be rude, but basically your implying that Flowers should start and Mcann is a back up base ld on his offensive numbers to this point in NY… Wouldn’t this negate the theory of not using offensive numbers to to judge a backup catcher? I’m very confused..
Cardsfan
No actually what I was inferring is if the Mets sign Flowers, then it be some kind of timeshare on the starting catcher’s job but keep Nido as your backup catcher. If McCann still hits like he did with the White Sox then you work both bats into the lineup equally and the other is prime PH off the bench. Which right now the Mets best PH option is probably Villar so there is room for it to work. Nido stays as your backup catcher because he calls the best game and frames pitches better than the other two. The Mets pitchers rave about Nido so he doesn’t need to hit to keep his job. Plus, you let Nido go .. it hurts the odds of re-signing Thor since he won’t throw to anyone else. The difference in evaluation is that easy… Flowers and McCann have value outside of catching. Neither of them are gonna be true backup catchers. Nido is valuable as the guy you use when a pitcher is struggling and you need a start where he has the best chance of success or in the case of Thor, where a guy is so comfortable throwing to Nido that anything else will mess him up. Since basically no team uses a backup catcher as a PH due to the possibility of injury and not having a catcher to use… this works well. Barring injury, I’d split a normal week up something close to 3 games for Flowers, 3 games to McCann and Nido with Thor. Then you work Nido in if you need to help a struggling starter. And you’ve got a decent PH always available as well.
And I’m a Cards fan too and would love to see us with 3 rd catcher. Maybe Sanchez? Cus he’s a heck of a defensive catcher. It would allow Kiz to get more ABs than just backing up Yadi
Thor doesn’t dictate what catcher is on the rosters. He didn’t like pitching to Ramos, who is terrible, but he’s not gonna retire if they get rid of Nido and his non existent offense.
I still kinda want him as backup on the Braves. Our bench is brutal
Where are all “ the Blue Jays are in on this free agent” rumors, lol
Tyler Flowers brings May showers.
Trevor?