Adam Hunger – USATODAY Sports
The New York Mets made a rather curious roster move on Sunday by sending catcher Anthony Recker to triple-A in favor of keeping rookie Kevin Plawecki to be Travis d’Arnaud‘s backup. Plawecki has not played in a week, in part because of d’Arnaud’s return from the DL, but also because Plawecki has been dealing with dizziness related to a sinus infection. If the Mets aren’t going to put Plawecki on the DL to sort out his health issues, they need to option him back to triple-A, where he can play every day and continue his development rather than ride the pine as d’Arnaud’s backup.
Plawecki was called up the third week of April out of necessity when d’Arnaud went to the DL, forcing him to make his major league debut sooner than most were expecting. After a fast start, Plawecki soon had many Mets’ fans pondering what the team would do with him when d’Arnaud returned. But Plawecki soon began to struggle, appearing outmatched against major league pitchers while at the same time trying to manage the Mets’ young pitching staff from behind the plate. It’s become obvious that Plawecki is in need of more seasoning in the minors, but even with d’Arnaud back from injury, the Mets have decided to keep Plawecki around, which makes no sense.
Even if the Mets want to go slow with d’Arnaud and give him frequent days off now that he’s back from injury, there still aren’t enough at bats available to make it worthwhile to keep Plawecki. More importantly, when he has played lately, Plawecki hasn’t done all that much to help the team win. To be fair, Recker has been a disaster offensively this season, hitting .143/.276/.541 with two home runs and three RBI’s. But Recker is still a more experienced catcher who is better at throwing out runners than either d’Arnaud or Plawecki. Moreover, at this point in the season, Recker may still be the best choice as New York’s backup catcher, especially since that would mean Plawecki playing every day at triple-A.
Even if the Mets wanted to demote Recker, they could easily bring back Johnny Monell to be the back up catcher. Despite his offensive struggles during a cameo appearance in the majors earlier this year, Monell continues to have a standout season at triple-A and he could make a nice complement to d’Arnaud.
Whether it’s Recker or Monell, the Mets should have one of them as their back over Plawecki right now. Plawecki may very well be a part of New York’s future, potentially as one half of a super-tandem at catcher along with d’Arnaud, but for the time being he’s not ready to make an impact at the major league level and he needs to be in triple-A. That’s not to say Plawecki should be banished there for the rest of the season, as he could prove helpful for the Mets later in on, but for right now, triple-A is where he should be.
Bryan Zarpentine is a New York Mets writer at www.RantSports.com. Like him on Facebook, follow him on twitter @BZarp and add him on Google.
