FOR AMAZIN’S
For James McCann, signing with the Mets was a no-brainer. The catcher, who turned his career around just two years ago, inked a four-year contract with the Mets this week. Decisions like McCann’s are common these days, at least since new billionaire owner Steve Cohen officially took the reins in early November. McCann joins Trevor May as two quality players who have joined the organization this offseason, plus a third in Marcus Stroman who decided to forgo free agency and stay with the Mets in part because of Cohen’s deep pockets and outlook for the team.
McCann wouldn’t discuss exactly how many teams were up against the Mets, but it was pretty clear that no other club was going to convince him to land anywhere but Queens.
“When the Mets came calling, from the first minute they were high on the list – especially with the new owner and everything that he’s doing,” McCann told reporters Thursday in his introductory press conference. “I’ve seen what he’s come out and said in the media, I’ve seen what he does on social media.
“I’ve seen the excitement from current players, particularly Marcus Stroman , with just how everything is being sold for the New York Mets,” McCann continued. “I didn’t really need any selling from the standpoint of, are we trying to put a winner on the field or how are we trying to compete? I knew that was a focus for the organization and I knew that was something I wanted to be a part of.”
Mets team president Sandy Alderson — who has now completely moved on from his previous, handcuffed tenure under ex-owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon — said
Cohen’s Mets don’t have to sell their future. Persuading McCann to join the organization had very little to do with painting the Mets as clear winners. Rather, Alderson wanted McCann to have all the details and information he needed on how exactly the catcher could be an asset to the team for years to come.
McCann’s advantages include his deep and personal relationships with pitchers, his priority to get on the same page as his pitching staff and his right-handed bat in a lefty-heavy lineup. McCann has produced a slashline of .276/.334/.474 and an OPS of .808 over the past two years.
“I think the excitement surrounding the Mets right now is self-evident,” Alderson said. “We don’t really have to spin that, we don’t have to add to it, we don’t have to reach to hyperbole. People know who we are now, where we’re going, and so as a result, that part of the conversation disappears, and we get to talk more about nuts and bolts.”
McCann can make an impact on both sides of the ball. After he was non-tendered by the Detroit Tigers in 2018, the 30-year-old sought help from former catcher Jerry Narron who helped him improve his defense and framing behind the plate. McCann values the relationship between a pitcher and catcher as much as he would any other baseball statistic, though
there’s no metric for the level of trust between batterymates.
One of McCann’s strengths is figuring out what makes pitchers tick. In particular, he pays attention to when things get tough, in the biggest moment of the game, what makes the pitcher have the best chance for success. He
believes catchers play a large role in getting out of those jams and ensuring that pitchers don’t repeat the same mistakes, which in turn makes the team “a whole heck of a lot better,” per McCann.
“I think the first thing to know about me is I’m going to always pride my game on my defense,”
McCann said. “I’ve always felt that way because I truly believe that a catcher can impact the game tenfold defensively than he can offensively, especially over the course of a season.”
Alderson praised McCann for his self-awareness, evidenced by his drive to successfully improve his pitch framing, his work ethic and being cognizant of what needs to be done to help the team win.
None of McCann’s assets would be available to the Mets unless he didn’t already like the direction they’re going. That starts with the club’s current roster — including the promise of a young core of players in Pete Alonso, Dominic Smith and Jeff McNeil — and ends with the excitement around Cohen.
“Everything is trending in the right direction,” McCann said. “That made the New York Mets a very attractive landing spot. Just the conversations that were had through the course of the offseason leading up to the signing, it really just pushed it over the edge and, I say, an easy decision.”