It’s been an interesting road for Kevin Plawecki and the Mets. Tonight the 24-year-old catching prospect makes his major league debut in Flushing. A lot could have happened to prevent today from happening, and a lot of things had to happen to make it possible, as well…
As a freshman at Purdue University, Kevin Plawecki was already making a name for himself on the Boilermakers baseball team. During that 2010 season, Plawecki set a school record for RBI as a freshman (53) and led his team in batting average (.343), multi-hit games (23), multi-RBI games (14) and ranked 2nd on the team in home runs (8). Plawecki was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA Freshman All-American and to the Big Ten All-Freshman team.
Plawecki continued to rack up the numbers in his 2nd season, batting .341 and finishing as a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate catcher. It was in 2012, his final season at Purdue, where Plawecki really made a name for himself, though.
In 2012 Plawecki started all 59 of Purdue’s games that season (49 at catcher) and had himself one of the best individual seasons the program has ever seen. After hitting .359 with a .445 on-base percentage and seven home runs, 20 doubles, three triples and 47 RBI, the 21-year-old catcher put himself on the map. Plawecki became the first player in school history to be named Big Ten Player of the Year and was also named Most Outstanding Player during the 2012 Big Ten Tournament. In addition to those accolades, Plawecki was named a Johnny Bench Award Finalist, Purdue Male Athlete of the Year, National Semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy, and on Second Team All-America Honors: Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, Perfect Game USA & College Baseball Insider, Third Team ABCA All-American First Team All-Big Ten, First Team ABCA All-Mideast Region and the NCAA All-Gary Regional Team…
As Plawecki was lighting it up at Purdue, the Mets were struggling. After completing a 77-85 season in 2011, things seemed to get even harder for the Mets as the team let fan favorite Jose Reyes walk in free agency. What does this have to do with Plawecki? Well as many of you may know, the Mets wound up receiving a compensation pick when Reyes left, which wound up being the 35th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. That pick wound up being Kevin Plawecki.
The Mets were in dire need of a catcher, and even though he was a few years away, it appeared that they may have acquired one in Plawecki. The outlook for Kevin changed a bit, however, when in the 2012-2013 offseason the Mets acquired top catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud as part of a trade with the Blue Jays. The acquisition of d’Arnaud, who was closer to the major leagues and more highly touted, made Plawecki’s future with this team a bit of a mystery.
Entering 2013, Plawecki was ranked as the Mets 17th best prospect by MLB.com. However as the year went on, it was becoming clear that this guy may have been overlooked. Plawecki spent the season split between St. Lucie (Single-A Advanced) and Savannah (Single-A Full), where he hit a combined .305 with a .390 on-base percentage, eight home runs, 38 doubles and 80 RBI in 125 games.
Plawecki continued to move through the farm system quickly, as last season he split time between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting a combined .309 with a .365 on-base percentage, 11 home runs, 24 doubles and 64 RBI in 101 games.
By the time this season began, Travis d’Arnaud was the Mets starting catcher, Lucas Duda was their first baseman and even the outfield had no starting spots. So even after all of his success, there was simply no room for Plawecki on this roster. All of that changed, however, as d’Arnaud was hit in the hand this past weekend and will miss at least four weeks as he deals with a fractured hand.
It’s unclear how long Kevin Plawecki will have at the major league level this season, and what will happen to him when d’Arnaud recovers from his injury, but if his history tells us one thing, it’s that he’s going to make the most of his time here and run with it. I, for one, am excited to see what he can do.
Just Mets 