James McCann

Mets Acquire Luis De La Cruz From Orioles

By Darragh McDonald | January 13, 2023 at 5:06pm CDT

The Orioles announced that they have traded infielder/outfielder Luis De La Cruz to the Mets as the player to be named later from the James McCann trade.

De La Cruz, 20, has spent the past couple of seasons in the Dominican Summer League, playing first base and the outfield corners. In 60 games over those two seasons, he’s hit .252/.405/.316. He has just one home run but has walked in 16.4% of his plate appearances compared to an 18.5% strikeout rate.

McCann signed a four-year, $40.6MM contract with the Mets going into 2021, but he struggled in the first two years of the deal. In flipping him to the O’s for a player to be named later or cash considerations, it was mostly about getting him off the roster and clearing some money off their ledger. They’re still on the hook for $19MM of the $24MM owed to McCann, but that $5MM drop will actually save them more than that since they are well into luxury tax territory this year and seem likely to be in the same position next year. But in addition to the cost savings, they’ve now added a young player to the lower levels of their farm system.

Mets Sign Omar Narvaez

By Anthony Franco | December 22, 2022 at 11:35am CDT

December 22: The Mets have officially announced the deal.

December 15: The Mets have dipped into free agency yet again, agreeing to terms with backstop Omar Narváez. It’s reportedly a two-year, $15MM guarantee that allows him to opt out at the end of next season. Narváez, a client of ISE Baseball, will make $8MM in 2023, leaving him to decide on a $7MM option for the following season.

Narváez, who turns 31 in February, heads to Queens after three seasons in Milwaukee. The Brewers acquired the lefty-hitting backstop from the Mariners during the 2019-20 offseason. Narváez had developed a reputation as a bat-first catcher in the Pacific Northwest. He’d hit .278/.353/.460 during his lone season with Seattle. That’s excellent production for a catcher, but his pitch framing metrics were well below-average.

The Brewers landed the #1 catcher they’d been seeking in that deal, although they likely didn’t foresee the scope of his production changing the way it did. Narváez seemed to make a concerted effort to improving his pitch framing numbers. He posted strong marks in that regard in all three seasons in Wisconsin, with Statcast cumulatively crediting him as 21 runs above average over the three-year stretch. That defensive uptick coincided with a drop in production at the plate, though, as he hasn’t managed to repeat his early-career offensive numbers.

Over his time as a Brewer, Narváez hit .233/.318/.350. He was average or worse in each season, including a lackluster .206/.292/.305 mark in 296 plate appearances during his platform year. The Venezuela native had a pair of injured list stints this year, missing time with COVID-19 and then a left hamstring strain. Even when healthy, Milwaukee deployed a more even split in playing time with Víctor Caratini, who marginally outperformed Narváez at the plate.

Narváez has solid contact skills, but a 22-homer season of 2019 now looks like the product of the very lively ball used that season. He’s only topped 10 homers in another year once, hitting 11 in Milwaukee’s hitter-friendly home environment in 2021. While he rarely hits the ball hard, he’s worked walks at a strong clip in each season of his career and strikes out less often than the average batter (aside from an anomalous spike in the abbreviated 2020 campaign).

It’s a bit surprising to see Narváez secure a $15MM commitment, particularly one that affords him a chance to retest the market a year from now. With Willson Contreras and Christian Vázquez off the board, he was the top remaining free agent backstop. Narváez has showed glimpses of offensive and defensive potential, although he’s never quite put the two together over a full season.

New York has been incredibly aggressive this winter, but they’d sat out the catching market. The Mets could’ve rolled things back with veteran James McCann as the starter, particularly since they have the glove-first Tomás Nido as a depth option and top prospect Francisco Álvarez in the wings. McCann has only a .220/.282/.328 line in 603 plate appearances since signing a four-year free agent deal over the 2020-21 offseason. Nido has never hit enough to be a regular, and the 21-year-old Álvarez still faces questions about his ability to handle the rigors of the position. The presence of Narváez doesn’t figure to stand in Álvarez’s way once the organization deems the youngster ready for a full look, though it’ll afford them some extra veteran security if he needs more time to hone his receiving and game-calling skills.

The Mets would presumably be happy to find a trade partner for McCann. With $24MM still due over the final two years of his contract, the Mets would surely have to pay down some of the money to offload the veteran backstop. They could keep the righty-hitting McCann to partner with Nárvaez in a loose platoon arrangement. Doing so might require parting with Nido, however, since he’s out of minor league option years. All three backstops would have to stay on the MLB roster or be cut loose, and that’s before considering the possibility of an Álvarez promotion. At some point next year, one of McCann or Nido seems likely to have changed uniforms.

Tacking on another $8MM brings the Mets projected 2023 payroll north of $343MM, per Roster Resource. The deal counts for $7.5MM against the luxury tax, since the player option is treated as guaranteed money when calculating its average annual value.

New York has already shattered the fourth and final tier of CBT penalization, subjecting them to a 90% tax on every additional dollar spent. The Narváez deal will cost them an extra $6.75MM in taxes, meaning the Mets are committing $14.75MM to secure his services for next year alone (in addition to the 2024 option). That’s likely a far higher price than any other club would’ve paid, but it’s the latest example owner Steve Cohen is unconcerned about spending when the front office presents him an opportunity to improve the roster.

Robert Murray of FanSided was first to report Narváez and the Mets were nearing agreement on a contract. Joel Sherman of the New York Post first reported it was a two-year guarantee with an opt-out after 2023. Jon Heyman of the New York Post was first to report the $15MM guarantee and financial breakdown.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles Acquire James McCann From Mets

By Anthony Franco | December 21, 2022 at 11:54pm CDT

The Mets and Orioles swung a trade late Wednesday night, with Baltimore acquiring James McCann and cash considerations for a player to be named later. New York is reportedly covering $19MM of the $24MM still remaining on McCann’s contract over the next two years. To create a spot on the 40-man roster, Baltimore designated infielder Tyler Nevin for assignment.

It looked like only a matter of time before McCann changed teams. New York agreed to terms with Omar Narváez on a two-year contract last Thursday. As soon as news of that agreement broke, it became clear the Mets were going to deal one of their incumbent backstops, with McCann the likeliest candidate. Neither McCann nor Tomás Nido could be sent to the minor leagues, and carrying three catchers on the 26-man roster would’ve been challenging. That’s before considering top prospect Francisco Álvarez, who figures to get an extended MLB look at some point soon after debuting late in the 2022 season.

McCann will secure his roster spot in Baltimore. The O’s entered the day with just one catcher on their 40-man roster, making it an inevitability they’d bring in some help from outside the organization. Of course, that backstop is AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Adley Rutschman. McCann will have to move into a backup role with the O’s.

The past couple seasons have been rough for McCann, who first joined the Mets over the 2020-21 offseason. New York placed a sizable bet on the veteran backstop’s previous couple seasons with the White Sox. The University of Arkansas product had hit .276/.334/.474 through 587 plate appearances for Chicago between 2019-20. That handily dwarfed the .240/.288/.366 mark he’d posted over the preceding four-plus seasons with the Tigers, and the Mets clearly felt he’d turned a corner offensively. They inked him to a four-year, $40.6MM free agent contract that beat most expectations.

New York gave McCann extended run in his first season, starting him at catcher for 97 of their 162 games in 2021. His production more closely resembled that of his Detroit days, however. He hit .232/.294/.349 over 412 plate appearances, connecting on just 10 home runs after hitting 18 longballs in his only full season with the White Sox. Nevertheless, McCann was back in the Opening Day lineup for the second season of the deal as the Mets hoped for a bounceback campaign.

That wasn’t to be, as he struggled with both underperformance and injury this year. The veteran fractured the hamate bone in his left hand/wrist in mid-May. He required surgery and lost six weeks to rehab. A few weeks after his return, he suffered a strain in his left oblique and went back on the injured list for a little less than a month. In between the health setbacks, he managed just a .195/.257/.282 line in 61 games. By the time the postseason rolled around, Nido was starting behind the dish. McCann was relegated to a depth role, while Álvarez was with the big league club in a catcher/DH hybrid capacity.

The past two seasons certainly aren’t what the Mets had envisioned when they signed McCann. As a result, they’re left to pay down a notable chunk of the remaining money on his contract. His deal was backloaded, with a $600K signing bonus followed by successive $8MM salaries in the first two seasons. He’s due $12MM in each of the next two years, the bulk of which will remain on the Mets’ ledger.

While New York only sheds $5MM in actual salary, the savings from the trade are a bit more than that for owner Steve Cohen and his front office. New York is going to shatter all four thresholds of the competitive balance tax, meaning they’re paying a 90% tax for every additional dollar they spend next season.

Tim Healey of Newsday tweets that New York’s CBT hit on McCann will recalculate to encompass the two years and $19MM they’re still paying — a $9.5MM average annual value. His contract had previously counted for $10.6MM against the team’s tax ledger (reflecting the AAV of his four-year deal), so they’ll shave roughly $1.1MM off their CBT number. That translates to $990K in tax savings this year. If they surpass all four CBT thresholds again next year, they’d be taxed at 110% on every dollar spent beyond the fourth threshold. Shaving $1.1MM off their CBT mark would pick up around $1.21MM in tax savings that season.

Paying down the deal makes it a reasonable proposition for the Orioles. A $5MM commitment spread over two years is minimal for a veteran catcher. Players like Mike Zunino and Austin Hedges have signed one-year deals in the $5-6MM range recently as free agents. Those players will take on a larger role in their new destinations than McCann will with the Orioles, but he’d have fit in that group were he available on the open market. The O’s are nowhere near the luxury tax threshold, so the money New York saves in that regard is of little consequence to the O’s.

There’s no question it’s Rutschman’s job, but McCann offers a respected and experienced voice behind him on the depth chart. After a few seasons of subpar pitch framing numbers, he has rated as a slightly above-average framer in two of the past three years. McCann doesn’t have a great arm, but he’ll bring competent receiving when called upon in Rutschman’s stead. A situational role could allow manager Brandon Hyde to work him in against left-handed pitching, against which he has a career .258/.325/.458 mark. They’ll presumably look to shield him from righties, who have limited him to a meager .237/.284/.351 line.

It’s a minimal financial hit for Baltimore, and the acquisition cost will be minor. It’s not likely the player to be named later will be a prospect of much renown, with the Mets not negotiating from a position of strength. For the most part, the swap is about the Mets clearing the roster spot and some money. Baltimore will plug the #2 catcher spot they’d been seeking to address.

Doing so means they risk losing Nevin, who was bumped from the 40-man roster. The son of Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Tyler briefly debuted in the majors in 2021, but the bulk of his MLB experience came this past season. He hit just .197/.299/.261 with a pair of home runs across his first 184 trips to the plate. Nevin appeared at all four corner positions but rated poorly in the eyes of public metrics for his work at third base.

Prospect evaluators have long considered Nevin more of a bat-first player, so his defensive struggles at the hot corner aren’t too surprising. Baltimore has stockpiled plenty of upper level talent in the infield that had surpassed or was likely to soon leapfrog Nevin on the depth chart. They’ll now have a week to trade him or place him on waivers.

While Nevin doesn’t have much MLB experience, he’s only 25 and has a more respectable Triple-A track record. The righty is a .246/.328/.417 hitter through 644 plate appearances at the top minor league level. Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun tweets the O’s were granted a fourth minor league option year, meaning any team that acquired Nevin could bounce him between the majors and Triple-A for another season.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Orioles were acquiring McCann. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported the Mets were receiving a player to be named later and that the O’s were covering $5MM in salary.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mets Discussing James McCann In Trade Talks

By Darragh McDonald | December 16, 2022 at 5:48pm CDT

The Mets are discussing catcher James McCann in trades, reports Andy Martino of SNY. No specific clubs are mentioned as having interest and it doesn’t appear anything is close, but the discussions are notable nonetheless.

Going into yesterday, the club already had three catchers on their 40-man roster going into yesterday, with McCann joined by Tomas Nido and Francisco Álvarez. Last night, the club agreed to terms with Omar Narváez, adding a fourth catcher into the mix. That created immediate speculation that the club would look to move one of their other receivers, with McCann a fairly logical choice.

McCann, 33 in June, had a strong two-year run with the White Sox over 2019 and 2020, hitting .276/.334/.474 for a wRC+ of 114. He parlayed that into a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets, but has taken a dip since then. He hit .232/.294/.349 in 2021 for a wRC+ of 80 and then dipped further to .195/.257/.282 this year for a wRC+ of 59. He also made multiple trips to the IL and only got into 61 games. Defensively, he’s been a bit below average in his Mets tenure, posting a -3 Defensive Runs Saved and a -0.8 from FanGraphs’ framing metric.

McCann’s deal was slightly backloaded, as he got a $600K signing bonus followed by salaries of $8MM in the first two seasons followed by $12MM in each of the two seasons to come. That leaves two years and $24MM still to be paid out. Given his underperformance, it makes sense for the club to see if any team is willing to take it off their hands.

They don’t really need the cost savings, since money seems to be no object under owner Steve Cohen. Roster Resource pegs their current payroll at $344MM with a competitive balance tax figure of $356MM. That’s miles beyond the top luxury tax tier of $293MM. Since the club is a second-time payor, they’ll pay a 90% tax on any spending beyond that $293MM figure. Given that obvious willingness to spend, they don’t need to pinch pennies by shedding McCann’s contract, but it’s worth pointing out that those high taxes mean shedding a contract would come with double savings. McCann’s contract comes with an annual CBT hit of $10.15MM, since it’s based on the average annual value of the deal. A 90% tax on that means $9.135MM, so moving McCann and and his $12MM salary would actually save the Mets almost $20MM.

Regardless, it’s unlikely that any club would want to take on that salary in full, given his disappointing performance over the past two seasons. The catching market no longer has the most exciting free agents like Willson Contreras, Christian Vázquez and others, but there are still a few names left. Teams like the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Astros, Giants, Pirates, Padres, Tigers, Rays, Angels, Marlins and Red Sox either have reported interest in catching upgrades or make sense for one. They might look into McCann but they could also just sign someone like Gary Sánchez, Roberto Pérez or Tucker Barnhart. Those players would likely be limited to one-year deals at significantly lower salary than what McCann is set to make.

If the Mets are truly motivated to get McCann out of the way, they would likely have to include something else in the deal or just eat a portion of his salary. Álvarez is one of the most highly-regarded prospects in the game but is considered a bat-first catcher at this point. It’s possible the club could carry three catchers with Álvarez frequently slotting in as the designated hitter. However, four catchers seems rather untenable, meaning that McCann and Nido will likely see their names in trade rumors until a deal comes together.

Mets Acquire Michael Perez From Pirates

By TC Zencka | July 23, 2022 at 11:35am CDT

The Mets are acquiring catcher Michael Perez from the Pirates in exchange for cash considerations, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post (via Twitter). This is the second deal consummated between these two sides in the past two days (Yesterday, the Pirates sent designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach to New York for Colin Holderman). In this case, Perez was designated for assignment yesterday, so the acquisition cost for the Mets was negligible.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Mets have designated Travis Blankenhorn for assignment, per Tim Healey of Newsday Sports (via Twitter). Blankenhorn was called up to the active roster yesterday, so his designation clears an active roster spot for either Perez or Vogelbach.

In the short run, Perez serves as catching depth, should Tomas Nido require a stint on the injured list for his bruised hand. In that case, Perez would join with Patrick Mazeika to form the Mets’ catching tandem. In the long run, Perez can be optioned to Triple-A, so he can remain in the Mets’ organization to serve as depth once Nido and/or James McCann return.

For the Pirates, this is simply a way to pick up some extra cash for a player they might have lost anyway. They have Jason Delay and Tyler Heineman handling catching duties with Perez now out of the organization. Veteran Roberto Perez remains sidelined after hamstring surgery back in May.

Mets Place James McCann On IL With Oblique Injury

By Darragh McDonald | July 10, 2022 at 12:20pm CDT

Mets manager Buck Showalter has informed reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that catcher James McCann will be placed on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique injury. Fellow catcher Patrick Mazeika will be recalled to take his place on the active roster. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News relays that Showalter said McCann will be out longer than the ten-day minimum.

On the heels of two strong seasons with the White Sox in 2019 and 2020, the Mets signed McCann to a four-year, $40.6MM deal going into the 2021 season. Unfortunately for both parties, things haven’t gone according to plan since then. McCann slumped to a .232/.294/.349 line last year, producing a wRC+ of 80. This year, he was shelved by a broken hamate bone and now this oblique injury, limiting him to just 30 games on the season so far. In that time, he’s hit just .183/.250/.293 for a wRC+ of 60.

With McCann missing significant time, the that’s led to increased action for Tomás Nido and Mazeika, with both of those players struggling to make use of the opportunity. Nido is hitting .221/.264/.248 through 52 games for a wRC+ of just 52. Mazeika has gotten into 17 contests and hit just .167/.200/.292 for a wRC+ of 41.

The Mets have been one of the best teams in baseball this year, currently leading the NL East with a record of 53-32. With the August 2 trade deadline now just over three weeks away, catcher stands out as one area with room for improvement, especially if McCann is going to be out for a while. Although no specific timeline has been provided, the fact that the Mets immediately expect him to be gone longer than ten days suggests that he could be facing a lengthy absence.

MLBTR’s list of the top trade candidates featured two catchers, with Willson Contreras taking the #1 slot and Sean Murphy at #41. However, recent reporting has suggested the Mets would like to hang onto their top prospects and would prefer to make deals by taking on large contracts. Contreras is a pure rental but the Cubs will surely be looking to extract as much prospect capital as they can in order to help them return to competition in the years to come. They’re running a lower payroll than in recent years and won’t need to worry about cost savings. As for Murphy, he hasn’t even reached arbitration yet and would only be moved by the A’s if they were bowled over by the return package, then turning to prospect Shea Langeliers behind the dish.

Another wild card that could come into play is Mets’ catching prospect Francisco Alvarez. He’s one of the best prospects in the game, with Baseball America ranking him #10, FanGraphs #6 and MLB Pipeline #2. Just 2o years old, he began the season in Double-A and mashed his way through with 18 home runs and a line of .277/.368/.553 for a wRC+ of 148. He was recently promoted to Triple-A but has struggled in a tiny five-game sample, hitting .125/.286/.188. Many Mets’ fans are already calling for his promotion, with those calls surely to only grow louder if McCann stays out of action and the club can’t find a suitable replacement on the trade market.

Mets Notes: McCann, Scherzer, Holderman, deGrom

By Mark Polishuk | June 25, 2022 at 10:24pm CDT

James McCann was activated from the 10-day injured list prior to today’s 5-3 win over the Marlins, and the catcher went 1-for-4 with a single and a run scored in his first game since May 10. McCann had to undergo surgery to fix a broken left hamate bone, costing him a little beyond the initial six-week recovery timeline. Nevertheless, McCann is back behind the plate and looking to finally get his Queens tenure on track. Since signing a four-year, $40.6MM free agent deal in the 2020-21 offseason, McCann has hit only .227/.290/.341 over his first 142 games and 476 plate appearances in a Mets uniform.

Neither Tomas Nido or Patrick Mazeika shone while McCann was out, so there isn’t much chance of McCann losing his starting job….unless the aggressive Mets either added a short-term catcher (i.e. a pending free agent like Willson Contreras) or perhaps promoted star prospect Francisco Alvarez. While Alvarez is crushing Double-A pitching, it would be bold to see the Mets promote him past Triple-A and directly to the majors, so the club would certainly prefer to just see McCann flash some of his good hitting form from the 2019-20 seasons.

Injury Notes: Perez, Matzek, McCann

By Anthony Franco | May 17, 2022 at 8:18pm CDT

The Royals placed Salvador Pérez on the 10-day injured list between games of today’s doubleheader with the White Sox. Pérez suffered a sprained left thumb during the opening contest, and Kansas City quickly moved to replace him with Sebastian Rivero on the active roster. Kansas City’s franchise backstop is off to a slow start, much like the rest of the lineup. Pérez is hitting .206/.239/.397 through 34 games. He’s popped six home runs but drawn only four walks with 38 strikeouts, contributing to one of the lowest on-base marks in the big leagues.

While Pérez is out of action, the Royals will get their first extended look at rookie MJ Melendez behind the plate. The 23-year-old backstop led all minor league players with 41 home runs last season, combining for a .286/.386/.625 line between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. That’s obviously elite production for any player, let alone a catcher, and Melendez is now regarded as one of the sport’s most promising prospects. He was recalled for his first MLB promotion at the beginning of the month and will take the majority of the catching time while Pérez is on the shelf.

The latest on a couple other injury situations around the league:

The Braves placed reliever Tyler Matzek on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 14, due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. That’s an ominous-sounding diagnosis, but an MRI this afternoon revealed no structural damage (relayed by Mark Bowman of MLB.com). Matzek will nevertheless be shut down from throwing for a couple weeks, indicating he’s likely to require a minor league rehab assignment even if he’s deemed alright to get back to action upon his next reevaluation. Matzek posted a 2.57 ERA in 63 innings for the World Series champions last season. He’s battled significant control woes in the early going this year, doling out nine walks among his 47 batters faced.
Mets catcher James McCann underwent successful left hamate surgery this morning, manager Buck Showalter informed reporters (including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). The team announced last Friday that he’d require a procedure after being diagnosed with a fracture, projecting a recovery timeline of approximately six weeks. McCann, who signed a four-year deal over the 2020-21 offseason, hit .232/.294/.349 during his first season in Queens. He’s off to a slow start this season, hitting .196/.266/.286 through 21 contests. New York is relying on a Tomás Nido – Patrick Mazeika pairing in McCann’s absence.

James McCann Out Approximately Six Weeks Due To Hand Fracture

By Anthony Franco | May 13, 2022 at 2:51pm CDT

The Mets announced that catcher James McCann has a hamate fracture in his left hand (via Bob Nightengale of USA Today). He’ll undergo surgery and miss around six weeks. Patrick Mazeika has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse in his place.

McCann has gotten off to a rough start, the second season of a four-year free agent contract he signed during the 2020-21 offseason. Through 21 games, the right-handed hitting backstop owns a .196/.266/.286 slash line. That’s a continuation of the .232/.294/.349 struggles he experienced during his first season in Queens, as McCann hasn’t managed to replicate the above-average form he showed for the White Sox in 2019-20.

Nevertheless, McCann has started 18 of New York’s first 33 games behind the dish. The veteran backstop is highly regarded for his work handling a pitching staff, and the Mets have gotten excellent results on the mound en route to their 22-11 start. While he’s out, New York will down to the light-hitting catching tandem of Tomás Nido and Mazeika.

It’s possible New York explores the catching market midseason. Even heading into the season, the Mets’ catching situation looked like a possible area for upgrade for a club hellbent on winning this season. McCann’s early offensive struggles and injury would only seem to increase the likelihood of an eventual external pickup. Willson Contreras and Christian Vázquez are among the impending free agent backstops who could be dealt by the end of July.

Acquiring a rental could allow New York to upgrade their catching corps for the stretch run without impeding the eventual path for top prospect Francisco Álvarez. One of the sport’s most talented prospects, Álvarez is viewed by many as the organization’s catcher of the future. At just 20 years old with only 24 games of Double-A experience under his belt, he probably won’t be a factor in the majors this year.

The Mets Have A Decision To Make Behind The Plate

By Anthony Franco | February 11, 2022 at 6:30pm CDT

The Mets entered the 2020-21 offseason in need of an answer behind the plate. After two seasons as the primary backstop in Queens, Wilson Ramos hit the open market. Entering his age-33 season with defensive question marks, Ramos didn’t profile as a long-term solution anyhow.

There was plenty of speculation heading into the winter about the possibility of New York making a run at J.T. Realmuto. The two-time Silver Slugger Award winner lingered longer in free agency than the Mets appeared to want to wait, though. Instead, they pivoted to free agency’s second-best backstop. In December 2020, they inked James McCann to a four-year, $40.6MM deal.

It was an eyebrow-raising investment. Heading into the offseason, MLBTR projected McCann for a two-year, $20MM guarantee. The Mets offered more than double that amount, betting that he’d broken out later in his career after signing with the White Sox before the 2019 campaign. Over two seasons in Chicago, McCann had hit .276/.334/.474 (114 wRC+). During the 2020 shortened season, his pitch framing — which had been below-average throughout his career — was graded positively as well.

The Mets clearly felt McCann had turned a corner, believing he’d developed into at least a capable #1 catcher. Unfortunately for the organization, his production dropped substantially during his first season in Flushing. The University of Arkansas product hit .232/.294/.349 (80 wRC+) with ten home runs across 412 plate appearances, less productive than the .229/.305/.391 mark (89 wRC+) compiled by backstops leaguewide. Statcast pegged him as a below-average framer, albeit only slightly. McCann’s 27% caught stealing rate was solid, but he didn’t match his 2019-20 production either at the plate or in the eyes of the public defensive metrics.

McCann’s 2021 dip could leave the Mets with an interesting decision. There are certainly reasons New York could opt to stick with him as the primary backstop. He’s due another $32.45MM through 2024, for starters. One could argue that investment has already been made and the Mets shouldn’t let it impact their decision whether to stick with McCann going forward, but they wouldn’t be the first team to give a longer leash to a veteran playing on a fairly notable contract. Even independent of finances, New York might simply believe McCann’s primed to bounce back. The Mets valued him enough last winter to sign him for a deal above expectations. He’s generally highly-regarded as a leader and for his ability to work with pitching staffs. That’s not an easily quantifiable trait, but it’s one organizations no doubt value immensely.

Yet there are also reasons to think the Mets may not be so patient. They’ve been one of baseball’s most aggressive teams this winter, signing Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha. It’s an absolute win-now situation, and owner Steve Cohen hasn’t shown many qualms about spending. The Mets already have a projected player payroll in the $263MM range (via Jason Martinez of Roster Resource), and they’re reportedly willing to push near the $300MM mark if the situation presents itself. New general manager Billy Eppler wasn’t part of the organization when McCann was signed. Nor was manager Buck Showalter (although team president Sandy Alderson is still around). It’s possible Eppler and Showalter aren’t especially bullish on the 31-year-old backstop’s chances of a rebound year.

Bolstering the starting rotation is likely to be the priority for the Mets coming out of the lockout, but making a move at catcher wouldn’t seem all that far-fetched. It presently appears to be the weakest position player group on the depth chart. The Mets are hellbent on winning in 2022 after missing the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. The other options on the 40-man roster — Tomás Nido and Patrick Mazeika — would probably be miscast as regulars. If Mets brass isn’t confident in McCann regaining his 2019-20 form, they could look into alternatives.

There’s probably no one available in free agency who’d be better than McCann. There could be an opportunity to explore a deal that brings in a new backstop via trade. Willson Contreras, for instance, is one of the likeliest players around the league to be moved before the start of the season. He’s only controllable through next season, but that kind of short-term add might be preferable for the Mets anyhow. Baseball America recently ranked catching prospect Francisco Álvarez the top talent in the New York farm system, among the top 15 farmhands in the sport. The Mets presumably view Álvarez as the catcher of the future, but he’s yet to reach Double-A and just turned 20 years old, so expecting him to make a big league impact this year would be optimistic.

Contreras, to be clear, is only a speculative possibility. There’s no indication the Mets and Cubs have discussed a deal. Yet a trade for a catcher could be a way for the Mets to make another bold strike after the transactions freeze, a chance to upgrade perhaps their weakest position on the diamond. Whether they explore trade scenarios seems likely to come down to how the organization feels about McCann after an underwhelming first season in Queens.

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