Kevin Plawecki: Mets catchers are “very underestimated”

Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki has a bone to pick with the media and those that doubt he and Travis d’Arnaud can be successful this upcoming season.

In an interview with SNY.tv, the 27-year-old backstop talked about his expectations going into 2018, and how he thinks people are sleeping on both him and d’Arnaud.

“I think we’re very underestimated,” Plawecki told SNY.tv. “But that comes with the territory of playing in New York. They underestimate a lot of things.“I know we’re very confident with what we can do. At some point, it (angers) me a little bit, that they want people there. I see where they’re coming from, at times — I, personally, haven’t put up the numbers I’d like. But there’s been so much improvement.”

I like that Plawecki is showing some confidence this offseason. I also like that he recognizes the fact that he hasn’t played as well as he should so far throughout his career.

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There are some good things to take from Plawecki’s limited playing time in 2017. Last season he was only given 118 plate appearances as he spent a large chunk of time in the minors (basically end of May through beginning of August). In that small sample of at bats though, Plawecki hit solidly – specially after being recalled from Triple-A on August 19.

In those last 27 games (90 plate appearances), Plawecki had an OPS of .885. Again, small sample size alert, but he had a hot last six weeks of the season, so I can’t blame him for being excited about what he can do in 2018.

As far as d’Arnaud goes, he also put up some good numbers. While he still didn’t play as many games as I’m sure he would have liked, the 112 games he did appear in were a career best. His .735 OPS was the second best of his short career and the fact that he hit 16 bombs helped as well.

Will he be able to continue a good stretch of health in 2018? Did Plawecki actually find a consistent swing in Triple-A last season that can translate to prolonged success in the big leagues? These are all questions that we’ll be able to answer this season thankfully. Until then, I’m content giving this tandem a shot for one more year.

Next: Mets trade Josh Smoker to Pirates

It’ll be interesting to see how manager Mickey Callaway manages the two. Will he play the hot hand exclusively or will he alternate between them evenly? Maybe the catching position will be the revelation of the season in 2018.