In his blog on ESPN.com, Buster Olney talks about the Mets catching situation and decided to e-mail some scouts to see what they thought about the Mets starting the season with Santos as their catcher. The results were not pretty...
All of the scouts, for the most-part, rate Omir as an average to below average catcher, with the ability to hit .250. The nicest thing any of the scouts say about Omir is that he is a hard-worker, potentially an intangible type guy, which is good to hear, if not for the rest of the article being about how below-average he is all-around.
Here are some telling quotes from the three different scouts:
Scout #1 - "Santos is decent emergency protection at AAA for a good club and a backup catcher for a club that isn't going to contend."
Scout #2 - "Omir is a capable backup ML backup. Offensively he should manage .250-.255 with below-average selectivity at plate and about seven to nine homers (if he received 500 at-bats). He has average arm strength and average receiving ability."
Scout #3 - "If he's the Mets' everyday catcher, with their payroll and in that market, there is a problem. However, I don't think he will be the everyday guy. Either he will be beaten out by Josh Thole or they will beat out the Mariners or possibly the Astros for Rod Barajas."
Okay, so let me see if I got this right. Omir is a quad-A player? He's a back-up for a team that wants to contend? Yikes.
Those are not glowing reports, but the part I find most interesting is the idea that Mets might let Thole compete for the starting job. Maybe that's why the Mets haven't signed anyone to catch, maybe they've got Thole in mind for this year, not next year...
Either way, I think the Mets catching situation is an interesting one, and will be worth watching until they bring someone in that can be a starting catcher in NY. Because right now, I would have to agree with these scouts that Olney quotes, I don't think Omir will cut it...
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