How the Mets should plan to use their catchers the rest of the season

As the New York Mets put their postseason outlook and planning in focus, it is worth looking at who should pair up with whom when it comes to their pitcher-catcher combinations.

There are pitchers who are more comfortable with some catchers more than others, and it has become clear through this season which combinations work more than others, so let’s look how the Mets should manage James McCann and Tomas Nido for both the rest of the regular season and into the postseason.

Mets catcher James McCann should receive Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, and David Peterson.

We chronicled earlier in this season about the importance of having James McCann behind the plate for Chris Bassitt because he can handle the complex arsenal of pitches he employs. Now, Bassitt had a poor performance last night with McCann against the Cubs last night, but his ERA this season with McCann (2.96) is significantly better than that with Nido (4.08). You figure Bassitt will be the team’s No. 3 starter behind Scherzer and deGrom.

Carlos Carrasco is a similar story. Carrasco has five pitches he uses, bringing the fastball, curveball, sinker, changeup, and slider. And as such, McCann should be used for Carrasco’s outings from here on out. Carrasco’s ERA with McCann is 3.65 this season and with Nido it is 4.31.

David Peterson may be used as a lefty reliever in the postseason to solve their lefty relief worries. But McCann is best suited to catch him. Peterson’s splits between the two catchers are stark. Peterson’s ERA’s with McCann and Nido are 2.19 and 4.78, respectively.

Mets Tomas Nido should catch Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, and Taijuan Walker.

Max Scherzer has hinted that Tomas Nido is not his personal catcher, but Scherzer suggests that Nido's skill set best suits what he wants to do on a start by start basis. His best starts have been with Nido behind the plate. In 13 starts with Nido, Scherzer has a 1.91 ERA. With McCann, it’s 2.92.

For Jacob deGrom’s case, let’s look at his career numbers rather than his season numbers because he missed the first four months. Now, the numbers are 1.42 to 1.58 in favor of McCann, but Nido has seen the dominance of deGrom since they became teammates a few years ago. So Nido should catch deGrom. Remember when Wilson Ramos had trouble catching deGrom in early 2019?

We should also look at Taijuan Walker’s career numbers with the duo. Walker’s ERA with Nido is 3.23 in his Mets career while his ERA with McCann is 4.26. That's an easy choice there.