Mets: Ranking each Opening Day starting catcher of the last 10 seasons

5) Kevin Plawecki

Kevin Plawecki also spent four seasons in Flushing and was named the opening day starter in 2018.  He was their first-round draft pick back in 2012.

Plawecki never played more than 71 games as a catcher in a single season but those were the couple of years where the Mets were platooning at the catcher’s position.

Take away the one season where Palwecki played in only 37 games, his batting average in the other three seasons never exceeded .219 and got as low as .197. Plawecki, in 2018, threw out only sixteen of the seventy base runners to attempt a steal on him giving him a twenty-three percent caught stealing percentage which was under the league average.

In 2019, the Mets shipped Plawecki off to the Cleveland Indians for Sam Haggerty and Walker Lockett.

4) John Buck

John Buck spent just one season with the Mets. He was traded to New York along with Noah Syndergaard from Toronto in the RA Dickey trade we brought up before.

Buck started in the majors in 2004 with the Kansas City Royals and throughout his career played for seven different teams. His one season in New York though he found himself as the starting catcher on opening day in 2013.

For the one season here in New York, Buck played decent for the Mets. He hit fifteen home runs, knocked in sixty RBIs but his batting average was just a mere .215.

Buck had a good arm behind the plate though when in 2013 he threw out thirty percentage of base runners that attempted a steal. That thirty percentage was above the league average.

Buck was traded at the trade deadline that same season with Marlon Byrd to the Pittsburgh Pirates who were battling for a postseason berth and they did just that while securing a win in the wild card round.

3) Rene Rivera

Rene Rivera has had a back and forth carer with the Mets. He first signed with the team in 2008 but was then released. He signed again with the Mets in 2016 and was released again during the 2017 season. Rivera signed with the Mets once more in 2019 and he is currently still on the team.

Now with all that being said Rivera still found a way to be the opening day starter in 2017. At the time Travis d’Arnuad was supposed to be the everyday starter but for a few years, he was dealing with constant injuries which opened the door for Rivera.

Rivera wasn’t a huge bat in the lineup even though in his short time he hit eight home runs and had twenty-three RBIs in the 2017 season. Rivera was more known for his play behind the plate.

In 2017, Rivera threw out thirty-six percentage of base stealers which was well above the league average that year at twenty-seven percent. Rivera always had a caught stealing percentage of thirty percent or higher.

With the good play behind the plate, the struggled bat of Rivera is what couldn’t make him an everyday starter but is a decent backup to have for some teams.