The Mets have released catcher Travis d’Arnaud, according to the MLB.com transactions page. He had been designated for assignment recently.
This goes down as one of the stranger transactional approaches in recent memory. The Mets somewhat surprisingly tendered d’Arnaud a contract, agreeing to a $3.515MM salary. Then the team elected to hang onto him and fully guarantee that amount after watching him in camp. Now, just over a month into the season, d’Arnaud is out the door. He’ll be paid in full by the Mets, though that amount would be offset by any MLB earnings (at the league-minimum rate) with another organization.
Injuries have thrown off a once-promising career path for the 30-year-old. Most recently, he worked back from Tommy John surgery that wiped out most of his 2018 season. He has had his share of success — in particular, a .268/.340/.485 stretch of hitting over 268 plate appearances in 2015 — but just hasn’t been consistent or consistently available.
The Mets had hopes that d’Arnaud would be able to rebound and at least discover the solid form he showed in 2017. But the club changed its assessment after watching ten games and 25 plate appearances of action over which the backstop recorded two singles and two walks while striking out five times.
To an extent, the move represents a vote of confidence in Tomas Nido, who has come up to become the primary backup to Wilson Ramos. Nido has yet to show that he’s capable of even palatable hitting in the big leagues, though he’s regarded as a quality defender.
It’s a bit of a risk given Ramos’s health issues and the uncertainty that comes with Nido, though there are some alternatives. Veteran Rene Rivera is on hand at Triple-A, which is a nice insurance policy. The Mets still control the rights to Devin Mesoraco, though he’s not active after he and the club failed to see eye to eye over the unwritten terms of their minor-league deal.
This goes down as one of the stranger transactional approaches in recent memory…..until you realize this is the Mets. The same team still paying Bobby Bonilla a million bucks a year not to play for them about 20 years later….
This was a long time coming.
You bring up Bonilla like he was the first to have it done, he’s just the most famous. The Braves deferred Bruce Sutter from the 80’s the tune of 1.12 million per year until 2021. The Nats doing with almost every star player they sign
Yep. Chris Davis is getting paid til the mid 2030’s to I believe. It’s a pretty common practice.
The magic of compound interest…..
There is a difference between the Mets deferral to Bonilla and what the Nats and most other teams are doing. Instead of just paying him in 2000, Wilpon actually thought Bernie Madoff could outpace the interest on the negotiated 8% for the Bonilla contract and he thought that would happen for 30 years….Bonilla actually has a second deferred contract with the Mets from his first stint with the team for 500k a year until 2023 too. So, while it is fairly common for teams to defer money, there is just something a little “Mets” about Bonilla’s deal
Thanks for digging into the details Andy to put whining Dummy into his place. They say that the devil is in the details and in this case good old Fred was trying to game the system by playing contracts on the come.
So Bobby Bo gets a double decade laugh. And Travis gets the last laugh as well, though senile Fred will be having a hard convo with Wagon Wheel for pissing away a few million when he had the opportunity.
Because this is completely unlike the Nats ownership expecting to get double digit returns from MASN.
But I guess Wilpon was supposed to know what the SEC, FINRA, all the banks he bilked, and every other investor failed to discover in spite of a decade of investigation.
Most deferred contracts do not earn any interest at all, thus the value of them. The Mets are paying interest on Bobby, that is why it is a terrible deal. Deferred contracts are a good thing if there is no interest being paid
The deferment did work out for the Mets because they were in turn able to sign mike Hampton who helped them win the pennant.
That’s called deferred money. You would be surprised how many retired players are still getting salaries from former teams. Research
Giants may as well just sign him… they’re want to control the Catcher market
classic mets
They have to let go of a few other guys.
Any predicted landing spots?
Long Island Ducks
Lol
they have my vote
Yanks
Japan, Korea or Mexico.
Blue Jays. They seem to like to buy back previously contested trades for cheapsies once they fail elsewhere.
Agreed
Jacksonville Fl Little League…maybe he could make a team!!
Anyone who has seen him play knows this isn’t a strange transactional approach.
What made it strange was that the Mets guaranteed his contract at the end of spring training when they could simply have let him go for free. They have clearly seen enough of him over the years to know he’s not worth 3.5m, not to anyone, much less the savings obsessed Mets
What took them so long. I saw enough of him years ago. That along with not keeping Mesoroco is a double whammy. Time to beg Devin to go to Syracuse, get some ABs & bring him up. Also bring up Rene & send Nido down to play everyday.
A below average catcher hitting the market is like crack for Farhan. Smoke it up.
Sorry Mets fans, I know this doesn’t pertain to this subject, but man oh man was it nice having ol Joe back in the tv booth again tonite!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD Bring back joe FSSN!
Should be Joe as lead analyst, chip as play by play, glavine as fill in, and Paul Byrd in moylan’s role.. MBAGA
Last names please for those of us from other parts of the country. Thanks!
Joe Simpson.. Long time Braves announcer for those ol time fans and as many applauded his demotion from full time announcer to 20-30 games this year it’s all too refreshing having him back in the booth this weekend against the fish..
I’ll compare it to when Don Sutton left ATL to go call games for the nats for 2 years only to be back where he belongs.
Not sure what it is but is, hate it or love it, but for us ol TBS fans of skip caray and pete van weiren, chip and Joe are meant to call games together.. Makes the mlb extra innings subscription much more worth the money to this guy that watches 150 games a year anyway!
I remember Joe Simpson. He’s always been horribly boring. Perfect fit with the rest of the snooze fest announcers in Atl. Then again I may just be spoiled listening to Krukow,Kuiper, Jon Miller & Dave Flemming.
To each their own.. Always tough listening to other team’s announcers although I will confess Ron darling is one of my top 3..
Consider me guilty of growing up in the Chipper Era and wearing his number but both those guys have mad respect.
I love Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling on SNY for the Mets. Hopefully, Ron will recover soon from the surgery removing a mass from his chest. It’s been painful watching Todd Zeile substitute for him.
I can’t stand Ron darling on mlb network and when he does playoff games, makes me want to barf
Always been a fan of Steve Stone myself. Going back to the late 80’s and early 90’s watching Cubs games on WGN. Steve Stone, Harry Caray in the 80’s and then in the early 90’s it became Steve Stone and Tom Brennaman with Harry Caray taking over in the 7th for the stretch. Great days to be a teenager. No cell phones, internet was dial-up and cost a small fortune. All the neighborhood kids played sandlot ball in the summer. It was the last great time to be growing up before technology made the world so small. I can’t remember the last time I saw a pick up game at the diamond by my house.
d’Arnaud to the Red Sox?
They just got rid of Swihart. I doubt they want to bring in a clone made of glass.
I can see him headed to the Rangers as a depth piece
Well that’s an easy $3.5 million
Think so? When you look at it only from today forward, I suppose that’s true. What got d’Arnaud to the point where he could be earning $3.5M probably wasn’t so easy.
It involved thousands of hours of work, constant travel, missing out on relationships, missing out on college, missing out on a normal social life, missing life events for loved ones, long hours, intense physical conditioning, intense rehabilitation, surgery, and years of working for less than minimum wage for years despite being one of a mere handful of people with his high demand talents and abilities in the entire world.
It’s a fantastic amount of money. More than I’ll make in my entire lifetime, but he did more than sit on a sofa to earn it. He’s being paid now for what he did before.
He was a former first round draft pick. He was paid millions just for signing his name. Save the broke minor league story for the poor college seniors who get drafted in the 25th round and sign for $5k just to keep their dream alive. Someone with the pedigree of TDA who couldn’t stay on the field doesn’t belong in that discussion. I doubt anyone bothered to write a comment like this when Will Jones hung up his cleats.
Should’ve been done with or switched positions with him a long time ago. He’s not really a catcher as much as a guy that just used to wear the gear. Should have kept Plawecki for less money or even Mesoraco… rather than jerking him around.
Had Mesoraco manned up, he’d probably be back in the majors right now with the Mets.. He refused to honor his contract after no major league team opted for him through mobility clause. Mets did the right thing putting him on restricted list after he refused to report to AAA. Can’t have players signing minor league deals with Spring invites and then refusing to honor the terms in hopes of becoming free agent whenever the player feels like it.
Mes needed to get it in writing but he failed to do so. I think there were mistakes on both sides. DeGrom could have gone to bat for him more. I hope deGrom has turned the corner, but there was a case to be made that Mes could have steadied him the way he did last year.
Mesoraco expected to be making the roster if it looked like he could play. For whatever reason, he believed the Mets intended to add him to the active roster. When he asked for his release, a request which is virtually ALWAYS honored for veteran players in MLB who aren’t added to the active roster, the Mets decided to screw him.
The Mets needed to offer a Spring Training invite to get Mesoraco to sign, period. It’s not Mesoraco who needed the Mets, you’ve got that backwards. It’s more proven by the fact he retired and gave the Mets a much deserved middle finger in the process. The Mets and MLB owners have had their reputations damaged and their negotiating position at the next CBA weakened by their decision.
All bootlicking aside,outside of Ramos it is Mes who is/was the best option as backup catcher. Winning baseball games ultimately is what’s best for business and that means putting your best 25 out there each night.
Cubs? Gotta be better than Taylor Davis
Agree. With caratini out , Contreras has been amazing , but needs rest days he isn’t getting.
And Taylor Davis hits a grand slam today against Wacha. Apparently he reads MLBTR.
The centerpiece of the Halladay deal. Prospects are just prospects.
The other side of that coin is that he and Noah Syndergaard were traded for RA Dickey. That’s one situation that it would have been better to hold onto prospects
One situation?
Usually the team getting prospects almost always end up winning the deal it just usually takes years to see that.
Add in if the team trading prospects wins a World Series no matter how good those prospects become they still won the deal
How would it have been better to hold on to the prospects in the Dickey deal?
Travis became a bust, and Noah has 10 less wins in 5 years with the Mets than R.A. had in 4 with the Jays. Jays went to the playoffs twice with Dickey as a steady workhorse.
Noah may yet prove to be a piece the Jays should have kept, but where they were at the time, and where he was in his development, it made more sense for the Jays to make that deal than to hold on to Thor.
Really using wins as a metric of success? You’re better than that greg1. Dickey was maybe slightly above average with the blue jays and was costly. Syndergaard has been cheap and an ace.
Ok the jays made the playoffs twice while DIckey was on the team but he was so bad in ’17 that he didn’t even make the playoff roster and in ’16 he was a decent pitcher but he hardly led them to the playoffs. Go ahead and take a look at Noah’s stats in ’16. Oh yeah he was an ace that year and pitched 7 shutout innings in the playoffs. You must not realize that Syndergaard has been in the bigs since 2015. He frickin’ helped lead them to the WS in his rookie year (while the jays were on their 3rd straight playoffless season with RA on the team), and then helped bring them back to the playoffs the next year
what a horrible take! even if you want to use wins as a reliable metric(lol), Dickey went 49-52 in his 4 years (130 GS) with the Jays while Noah has been 39-25 in 93 GS over 4+ years with the Mets. Noah also has 11.9 WAR over that time vs. the 7.3 WAR R.A gave Toronto; lastly, Dickey cost the Jays $41M over that time frame while Noah has cost less than $11M to date. The Jays and the Mets have both made 2 playoff appearances since the trade was made; and ironically enough, Noah has pitched 4x as many playoff innings as R.A. did (26 vs. 6.1). Noah is a piece the Jays would kill to have back at this point.
kevin … now … travis…
Honestly, if the Mets don’t believe in d’Arnaud’s abilities, I like this move. It’s decisive and doesn’t waste time wondering and pondering while other potential opportunities slip by.
Just wanna say to all the schoolmarms, Jeff Todd is really a pretty good writer. “Palatable” deserves serious props.
Todd’s articles unnecessarily ramble on and on.
The Mets misplayed the d’Arauld situation from the beginning, He should have been placed on the IL prior to the start of the season. he should have been left in Florida to build up his arm in Extended Spring Training. Once he was ready, he could have been sent out on a rehab stint.
anthonym –
D’Arnaud was placed on the IL prior to start the season and had rehab stint. His arm is fine, He just sucks at catching and loses focus at the plate, in his stance, mechanics and approach. The Mets had enough.
Isn’t the point that it took way too many seasons for a guy to develop when he couldn’t call a good game, throw to reach second base without the ball bouncing a few times, nor hit consistently?
Mets dopey supporters-please avoid the embarrassment of being called on the carpet for posting without researching the history.
D’Arneau should have been released years ago.
Wagon Wheel showed his inexperience with how ANY trained GM would have handled this situation. He should have released him in March. Instead Mr. Make Believe GM acted like a make believe agent and was promoting a guy with ZERO future.
Too bad that he has to deal with senile after who will be ripping into him.
D’Arnaud is physically gifted, hence the extended patience of the Mets which I agree was warranted including a contract this season returning from TJ surgery.
D’Arnaud’s problem is between the ears. He doesn’t adequately retain what he learns. Brodie did the right thing giving him one last chance with the Mets to hone ability into results. after coming into camp with a major surgery behind him. It didn’t work out and hence Brodie cut his loses quickly and handled it like a pro.
D’Arnaud will probably hook up with another team. Once upon a time he was one of the best prospects in baseball, Consensus Top 20 across the board, hence teams are open to change of scenery acquisitions, especially former highly regarded prospects. His best bet is to ditch the catching, focus on the bat and develop into corner infielder and/or outfielder. He could develop into valued infield/outfield utility who provides a third catching option on the bench who has hitting talent if he gets out of his own way.
He refuses to adapt to his hitting style weaknesses (terrible bat position, long, slow swing) and major league teams know how to get him out. He can’t stay healthy and is a terrible receiver. The fact that some team will sign him is a statement to just how bad catching is at the major league level.
He organically has good bat speed and pretty swing when employing good mechanics. But he has no consistent hitting style which is part of the problem with repeatedly changing stances and mechanics that even happen within AB’s without awareness.
He’s even gone as far as ditching effective stances and mechanics to adopt the bizarre such as extreme bat curl that made him repeatedly late and put him into tail spin. He self sabotages with the best of them and has done this for much of his big league career on both sides of the ball.
Or Anthonym he should have been released, don’t you think? With no upside it was the best move, however Wagon Wheel missed the obvious clues.
D’Arnaud has the upside. He just doesn’t adequately and consistently execute.
Given the Mets’ catching situation prior to signing Ramos, I get it. He got his chance and did nothing with it. Should have really loaded an offer for Realmuto.
Dodgers sign D’Arnaud.