Rivera is a Cub, so Plawecki has chance
Catcher Rene Rivera on Saturday became the latest Mets veteran to leave town, and now Kevin Plawecki will receive yet another opportunity to prove he’s capable of hitting in the major leagues.
He certainly started off his latest audition with an exclamation point.
Less than 24 hours after the Mets traded clubhouse leader Curtis Granderson to the Dodgers, the Cubs claimed Rivera off waivers to bolster a backstop group ailed by injury. The Mets, in turn, re-called the 26-year-old Plawecki from TripleA and activated lefthander Tommy Milone from the disabled list to fill the roster spots.
Plawecki then started behind the plate Saturday night and smashed a towering two-run homer on a hanging slider in the sixth inning that added insurance for the Mets in an eventual 8-1 victory over the Marlins. D’Arnaud, whose 2017 average has dropped to .226 after an extended August slump, rode the bench.
“First couple ABs, I’m not going lie, it almost felt like my first AB in the big leagues again,” said Plawecki, whose last MLB home run came on May 9, 2016. “But being able to go out there and contribute in that inning … was definitely big. It felt good.”
Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins and the rest of the Mets decisionmakers now have 41 games to determine if Plawecki and/or d’Arnaud can serve as the Mets’ catcher(s) of the future.
It’s the same strategy they’re implementing across the diamond: Shipping off elder players to make room for younger ones like first baseman Dominic Smith, shortstop Amed Rosario and outfielder Brandon Nimmo. Smith contributed a homer of his own Saturday night, and Nimmo laced a key single in the early stages of a seven-run sixth inning for the Mets.
Plawecki had been with Triple-A Las Vegas since late May. During those three months, the former firstround pick out of Purdue put together arguably the best hitting stretch of his professional career — albeit in the batter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
In 54 games and 210 at-bats, Plawecki posted a .338 batting average and .915 OPS with eight homers, 23 extra-base hits and 38 RBI.
Collins was direct when addressing what he hopes to see from Plawecki over the final month and a half: “Improvement. That he got better,” the skipper said.
“Everybody that you ever talked to when he was in the minor leagues said, ‘This guy is going to hit,” Collins added of Plawecki. “So (when we sent him down in May), I told him, ‘Go hit. Go put some big numbers up.’ And he did. So I’m hoping that they translate here, and now he’s going to get a chance to see how it works up here. But we’re reaching the stage where Kevin Plawecki, this going to be his opportunity to show us that he’s here to stay.”
This has long been the story with Plawecki, though: An uber-talented prospect both offensively and defensively who, for whatever reason, hasn’t put it together at the plate at the highest level.
With d’Arnaud battling injuries in 2015 and 2016, Plawecki received extended playing time. He hit just .219 in 73 games in 2015 and .197 in 48 games in 2016. He was a young player then, of course, and the argument could be made that he was rushed and wasn’t ready.
But now those excuses don’t apply. He’s proven he can be a dominant hitter in Triple-A. He now must show that same swing against bigleague pitching. “I had work to do,” Plawecki said of his thought process when he was sent to the minors in May. “Obviously I wasn’t performing the way that I wanted to up here. I went down there with the mindset of just really trying to better myself and be the best player that I can each and every day. A night like tonight is nice to see, all that work paid off.”
Plawecki admitted this final stretch of 2017 will be paramount to his standing within the organization. But he’s not allowing himself to get caught up in the magnitude of the moment.
“I can’t look at it as a huge pressure situation or anything like that. I’m not going to do it,” Plawecki said after the win. “It is what it is. What’s done is done. But I’m happy with the work I’ve been able to put in and I’m really looking forward to this last six weeks of the season and hopefully on to next year.”
Collins said he expects Plawecki to play at least half the games over the final six weeks. But he also is aiming to evaluate d’Arnaud.
“I don’t think we’re just saying, hey, we’re handing the reins over the Kevin Plawecki,” Collins said. “I think we’ve got to do diligence and make sure both these guys are getting playing time, ample playing time to show us what they can do.”