Third time is the charm, at least it looks that way as far as the Mets starting catcher goes. First it looked like Yorvit Torrealba would get the job but his injuries still haven’t been unveiled. Then it looked like Johnny Estrada when they traded for him with the Brewers but then it looked like he wouldn’t be the guy and he’d be traded sooner or later. Now, it looks like the Mets finally got their guy and it’ll be interesting to see if the price is right. In a trade with the Nationals, the Mets received catcher Brian Schneider and a solid left handed hitting outfielderin Ryan Church. Church was very solid against right handed pitching (.866 OPS) but he might as well not be put in there against lefties so he’ll make for a nice platoon partner for one of the corner outfield spots.
Schneider had an abysmal season at the plate last year but the Mets have plenty of offense to go around. He’s a veteran and you’d hope he’ll be able to handle the young pitching the Mets have coming up through the system. Also, Scheider is a very solid backstop and he led the National League last year in caught stealing percentage and he had the third best stolen base against/game rate.
Of course to get those two pieces, the Mets gave up top prospect Lastings Milledge. Milledge has spent parts of the past two seasons with the big league club and he was effective when he was in there, it was the offseason troubles that always surrounded him. If the Mets win a World Series in the next couple of years and both Schneider and Church are pieces of the team, I’ll call the trade a success. Of course if Milledge becomes a perennial All Star, we could view the trade in the same light as the Scott Kazmir deal.
