Recent minor league NY Mets free agent signing is more than a power-hitting catcher

The New York Mets added to their minor league catching depth this week with the addition of Chris Williams whose bland name sounds like it came from a British pop band. Portrayed as a power-hitting catcher, a look into Williams provides us with a similar theme David Stearns has gone with others.

Like Jakson Reetz who signed a minor league pact with the Mets already, Williams is more than a wearer of shin guards. In fact, he has spent more time at first base than anywhere else.

Last year in Triple-A for the Minnesota Twins saw a year where he did in fact catch more regularly with 313.2 total innings behind the plate. His most commonly deployed position, first base, accounted for 153 innings. In third place, we have left field at 124 full frames.

Chris Williams being able to do more than catch adds to his value exponentially

Williams isn’t going to make the Mets Opening Day roster or challenge for any playing time. He’s here for depth purposes where he’ll get his opportunity to make a major league debut if someone gets hurt or Luis Torrens deflates.

The offensive numbers at Triple-A haven’t been bad for Williams. He’s a .222/.335/.468 hitter overall with the OBP and power numbers standing out most. It probably wouldn’t translate into a whole lot of big league success, but for a spell on the MLB roster, Williams could be a halfway decent bat off the bench to possibly even give the Mets some flexibility to carry three catchers and use Francisco Alvarez as a DH at times. If, let’s just say, Alvarez is hurt but not bad enough to go on the IL and might even still be able to swing a bat, the Mets can have insurance with Williams on the roster for a short period of time.

The fact that Williams is the second versatile catcher this offseason added to the roster and last year we had Cooper Hummel briefly with the team in the offseason shows Stearns finds an appeal with this type of backstop. They’re unique and add value where there might not otherwise be much at all.

Filling in good catching depth is a challenge for most teams who often punt the position offensively even at the major league level. With no younger candidates, there’s a brief sigh of relief knowing the Mets are defending against a situation where a catching tandem of two players out of their element in the majors is unlikely to occur.