Does the Yoenis Cespedes Signing Change the Mets Need at Catcher?

Yeah, the combination of Travis d'Arnaud, Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera (who is definitely coming back per a one-year deal he just signed) were pretty bad offensively and defensively last season. But with Cespedes back in the fold and hopefully Sandy Alderson doing the right thing by keeping Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce for 2017, do the Mets really need a change at catcher?

I mean, Met pitchers seem to always praise their backstops ability to call a good game and considering that we traded a Cy Young winner to get d'Arnaud, I wouldn't be quite ready to give up on him just yet (tho it's kind of scary how powerless he looked at the plate when he came back from his latest injury in 2016). Plus with the market being pretty low for catchers (yeah, Matt Wieters is still out there, but he's 30yo and injury-prone, so how long does he have left playing catcher?) these days and the need to acquire bullpen help being great, it might be in the Mets best interests to keep what they have, save money and hire a new catching coach instead.

How Much Do the Mets Really Need Kevin Plawecki to Hit?

So with the injury-prone Travis d'Arnaud back on the DL, the spotlight is back on how much can the Mets expect from Kevin Plawecki as their No. 1 catcher. And I honestly don't think it matters that much. The Mets starting lineup, even without d'Arnaud, is highly potent. Especially with the spectacular show Neil Walker's been putting on since season started. Besides David Wright striking out too much and our leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson being such a streaky hitter, I'm not really worried about the Mets offense. Of course, Plawecki hitting around .250 and getting some clutch RBI's over the season could only help the Mets, when it comes to the overall state of the ballclub I'm much more concerned at what he does behind the plate in regards to throwing out runners and how he handles Mets pitchers. And so far, Plawecki has been doing a pretty sound job with both, throwing out a third of runners attempting to steal on him and Mets starters having a full run less of an ERA with Plawecki behind the plate versus d'Arnaud. If Plawecki continues with those type of numbers defensively and the Mets offense stays formidable, then Plawecki's offense should be the least of our problems moving forward.