The New York Mets announced that catcher Travis d’Arnaud has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a partially torn UCL that might require surgery.
In a corresponding move, the Mets called up Tomas Nido to take d’Arnaud’s spot on the roster as he will back up Kevin Plawecki for the time being.
Coming out of their strong showings at spring training, d’Arnaud and Plawecki were slated to platoon at the position this year. However, d’Arnaud continued to struggle during the regular season as the career .245 hitter collected just three hits in his first 15 at-bats this year.
Plawecki hasn’t done much better, batting .158 in 19 at-bats.
Nido provides a fresh option and some promise at the position as he is the Mets’ 11th-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline. He’s spent a little over a year with double-A Binghamton and hasn’t necessarily shown that he’s ready to settle into a full-time stay at the MLB level.
The 23-year-old batted .232 with eight home runs and 60 RBI in 102 games last year with the Rumble Ponies and had five RBI in his first five games of the 2018 season.
He did have an abbreviated debut with the Mets last year toward the end of the season, collecting three hits in 10 at-bats with the big club.
The 6-foot, 210-pound right-hander has shown that he has raw power but still needs to develop his discipline at the plate to wait for his pitch. Still, he has a knack for making contact, which makes him somewhat of a difficult batter to strikeout. Working further with big-league hitting coaches will only help as he can hit the ball to all fields when he does get a hold of one.
He will be wearing No. 3 with the Mets and is available for Wednesday night’s game against the Miami Marlins.
