The Wrong doing by Devin Mesoraco

Allow me to explain to those who think that Devin Mesoraco was wrong in what he did to the Mets.

Earlier before spring training, Devin Mesoraco received a grand total of 0 calls from 29 other teams. He finally received a call from the Mets and they offered Mesoraco not a Major league deal, but a Minor league deal with an invite to Major league spring training.

Minor league deals, to those who don't know, are contracts teams issue who are looking for depth players to store in the Minor leagues in case a player on the Major league roster gets hurt. It's also so a team doesn't have to call up a prospect who is nowhere near ready to play in the Majors.

During said off-season, the Mets signed a bunch of veteran players to minor league deals. Some of whom were: Adeiny Hechavarria, Danny Espinosa, Hector Santiago, Gregor Blanco, Carlos Gomez, Rajai Davis along with other players. 

These veterans were the depth that the Mets severely lacked last season. 

When spring training cuts came around, The players listed above didn't make the cut and were sent down to the Minor leagues to play for the Mets new AAA Team, The Syracuse Mets. 

Mesoraco on the other hand, decided to refuse his Minor league demotion and assignment. 

With Travis d'Arnaud not being slated to make the Major league roster right out of the gate, the job of Backup Catcher to Veteran catcher Wilson Ramos, was Mesoraco's for the taking had he taken his Minor league assignment. 

With all of that being said, instead of taking his Minor league assignment, Mesoraco decided to not honor his Minor League Contract that he signed in the off-season and request his release from the team. However, there was a twist to this request. If he wasn't released from the team, he threatened retirement from Baseball. 

The refusal of a minor league assignment put the Mets in a very small, easy to escape bind, as the Mets placed Devin Mesoraco on the Restricted and signed Veteran catcher, Rene Rivera to a Minor League Deal and took his assignment to the Minor leagues without any question. 

Mesoraco's placing on the Restricted list caused him to live up to his threat of Retirement. 

The Mets basically said to Mesoraco "If you won't take this assignment and honor your contract, fine. We'll fine someone else who will be glad to honor a contract" as indeed they did in Rene Rivera. 

Mets General manager Brodie Van Wagenen said in an interview that it wouldn't look good to the other players he signed to minor league deals if he gave Mesoraco special treatment. 

The Mets are punishing Mesoraco for not honoring his contract and instead of letting him get away with his behavior and possibly doing it to other teams and influencing other players to do the same.

With Mesoraco on the restricted list and retired and Travis d'Arnaud placed on the new Injured List, The Mets gave Tomas Nido, the Backup catcher role behind Wilson Ramos.

Had Mesoraco accepted his Minor League assignment, there was a strong possibility that he would've been the Mets backup catcher instead of Tomas Nido. Is that guaranteed? No, but it would've been a Ramos/Mesoraco catching tandem rather than a Ramos/Nido tandem.

Mesoraco quit baseball because he didn't get what he wanted. Remember what I mentioned earlier that 29 other teams didn't call him to offer him any contract? I highly doubt if Mesoraco were to come out of his retirement that teams would call him, especially after the way he didn't honor his contract with the Mets.

Fans will claim that "Mesoraco is a better catcher than Nido and d'Arnaud" well that is actually false. In this new analytical era (Which I'm not a big fan of to begin with), d'Arnaud is a better pitch framer than Mesoraco. Base stealing is part of the game yes, but catching runners from stealing isn't as important as pitch framing in today's new analytical era. 

Nido and d'Arnaud are better defensive catchers than Mesoraco. Some can claim that d'Arnaud is inconsistent and injury prone which may be true, but they'll also be describing Mesoraco, who for the first time since 2014 played over 50 games. 

Nido is a much better defensive catcher than Mesoraco and one game is not the judging factor. Mesoraco threw out 21% of base stealers last season and Former Met, now Indians catcher Kevin Plawecki, threw out 2% more than Mesoraco in the form of throwing out 23% of base stealers.

See where I'm going with this? Because Mesoraco may have meshed well with deGrom and other pitchers, it doesn't guarantee him a spot on a Major League roster when you sign a Minor league deal.

But guess what? That Rene Rivera veteran that the Mets signed, Worked well with the Mets pitching staff as well and is an overall better defensive catcher and can catch light-years better than Mesoraco! Mind you, he threw out 36% or 37% of base stealers for the Mets. In 2016 and 2017. Plus, he's a much better pitch framer than Mesoraco is as well!

So while Rivera is playing in the Minor leagues without an argument, Nido is the backup catcher to Ramos, d'Arnaud played 9 Innings in Florida and is slated to be back soon, whole Devin Mesoraco is sitting on his couch wondering how this happened.

Mesoraco did this to himself by dishonoring his contract and quitting not only on the Mets and himself, but on the great game of Baseball!

This is the Kind of player that the Mets don't need and are 100% better off not having him in the roster!

Until the next blog my friends,

LETS GO METS!!!