Mets 2017 Season in Review: Travis d’Arnaud

When you start to break down d’Arnaud’s 2017 campaign, it’s inevitable that defense will be brought up first. Specifically, his inability to throw out runners was an issue. Last year, opponents were successful in stealing bases 83 percent of the time against d’Arnaud. That was fifth worst among catchers with at least 50 stolen base attempts. Sure, d’Arnaud doesn’t get all the blame for that number but his arm isn’t a threat behind the plate.

Offensively, d’Arnaud picked up steam toward the end of the season. He had six homers and drove in 19 runs over his last 20 games. His slash line over that period was .297/.343/.656. In three other months (not counting May which he was hurt for most of), d’Arnaud hit .240 or lower.

Over the year, d’Arnaud has shown to be a very streaky hitter. You’ll get three to five week stretches where he’s a run generator and the home runs are coming in bunches. Then you’ll get a similar stretch of time where the bat goes ice cold. He has tinkered with his swing mechanics, but that still hasn’t netted consistent results.

However, his offensive production is on par with the MLB average for catchers in some spots. Relative to his position, d’Arnaud is not an offensive liability. He was 10th among catchers in RBI and had the fourth fewest of strikeouts of 25 catchers with at least 300 at-bats last season.