Travis d’Arnaud has spent more days this season in Port St. Lucie than he has with the Mets, and considering it’s August 9, that’s really not a good thing.
He spent most of May and June in Florida working his way back from a broken finger he sustained on a hit by pitch against the Marlins on April 19. But it took just ten days after his first return to land back on the disabled list for five weeks after he strained his elbow on a collision at home plate with AJ Pierzynski at Turner Field on June 20.
Prior to returning from his second extended stay on the disabled list on July 31, d’Arnaud had played in a total of 19 of the first 103 team games for the Mets in 2015.
That infrequent play has showed over the last nine days. At times, he’s shown those quick hands and ability to turn on the ball, but for the most part d’Arnaud is off to a sluggish start since coming off the disabled list, going 4-for-23 with seven strikeouts in six games.
His swing looks a little long, which is causing him to miss hittable pitches in the strike zone. It’s simply a consequence of not playing very much this season, and a matter of d’Arnaud finding his timing at the plate. In a way, he’s going through what really is a third spring training in a year, as he’s still building his stamina and strength back up to full season capacity.
He is such a valuable part of the solution here, yet he’s had so much trouble staying on the field in the early part of his career. Most of his problems are simply due to bad luck, but in the end that bad luck has kept him off the field in the latter stages of his development.
Will the Mets consider moving him out from behind the plate?
For now, that’s not in the cards, but something they may need to consider sooner rather than later. The problem is, he’s never played anywhere else on the field, which complicates the matter as they have to teach him another position completely from scratch.
But it may be worth the effort to send d’Arnaud to the instructional league and soon see what he’s capable of doing elsewhere on the field, just to see if such an alternative is even possible.
Just Mets 