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Look Out For St. Lucie Mets Catcher Tomas Nido

By Teddy Klein

August 17, 2016 24 Comments

Photo Credit: Ed Delany

Photo Credit: Ed Delany

I’m not sure about any of you, but I believe but Tomas Nido has been one of the biggest Mets surprises on the farm in the 2016 season. Drafted out of Orangewood Christian School in the 8th round of the 2013 Draft, Tomas Nido was known for his power, and was the battery mate on his travel team with now-major leaguer Robert Whalen (I can’t stop saying this, I’m too proud).

At draft time, his scouting report from Baseball America went like this:

Nido isn’t quite a one-tool player; the Florida State signee has average arm strength. But his calling card is plus-plus raw power, as he has strength and takes a big, powerful swing, generating above-average bat speed. He’s a slow-twitch athlete, and it may be a stretch for him to stay behind the plate. He has a tendency to sell out for power, even though he doesn’t need to with his strength. Nido had late helium and was doing some individual workouts for teams, and if he puts on a power display with wood, he could be drafted highly.

Baseball America was very correct on him selling out for power, which wasn’t a very wise approach, slashing a .246/.286/.336 in his first 218 games with 32 doubles, 2 triples, and 10 homers, and having to play Brooklyn in both his age 19 and 20 years. In addition, his catching was not very good to start, so he needed to work on that, especially with the arm strength that started out as just average as the above scouting report notes.  The underwhelming performance offensively and defensively caused many to lose faith in him as he entered his age-22 year in St. Lucie.

Michael Mayer and I had a debate to start the top-80 prospects about Nido, and I wanted him on, while he wanted him off. I won, put him on at #74, citing his ceiling, though he had underwhelmed so far. Apparently I wasn’t alone, as MLB’s Jonathan Mayo and Mets Farm Director Ian Levin stated they were high on him with prior to the year starting, citing a strong showing in spring training. Now even with a strong spring training a player can underwhelm, such as Angel Manzanarez has, so it means barely anything. However, Nido didn’t stop clubbing after joining High-A St. Lucie.

This year in his age-22 season, Nido is hitting .320/.351/.470 in High-A with 7 homers and 22 doubles. He has set career highs in hits, home runs, and lows in K percentage with 11.9%, a drop-off of from last year’s 25.7%. The Florida State League, which he leads in batting average, is notoriously known for being harsh offensively due to many of the baseball parks, as well as the competition from tough college players.

Photo Credit: Ed Delany

Photo Credit: Ed Delany

Also, on defense, he has gone above and beyond, throwing out an excellent 40% of base runners and being a smooth receiver behind the dish. It looks like at age-22, Nido has turned the corner, and has impressed many, including Baseball Prospectus, who wrote this scouting report about him. (FYI, the scale is a 20-80 sliding scale, and they vary in what they indicate, but usually a 50 is above average.)

A report like that gives someone hope, especially since it projects a pretty above-average catcher, offensively, and defensively (and Baseball Prospectus is usually an outlet that pulls no punches, so take that for what it’s worth) and an emergence in a stark system in terms of catching talent, as well as the MLB in general. Many of the highly touted catchers that have come out of a lot of these systems have crashed and burned, including the Mets’ Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki, as well as Mariners’ Mike Zunino, and others have struggled either offensively, defensively, or both.

But people have issues calling him a prospect because it took him a long time to actually get to this point. Let me help ease their minds:

Catchers are incredibly hard to develop, especially High School ones, because a majority of them are incredibly raw behind the plate, especially if they are great offensively. Two-way catchers are rarer than a pink diamond in general, which was why the Brewers could ask the Mets for a Michael Conforto or Zack Wheeler. If the organization believes the catcher will stick and they’re not showing their tools to the best of their ability, they’ll keep them back.

Also, if they like their bat a lot, they can forgo catcher and place him anywhere else like first base, or even right field. For example the Mariners (disappointment) Alex Jackson and Wil Myers while he was with Kansas City, or if you’re digging deeper, Jayson Werth. Doing that speeds up the ETA of the bat, without the necessity of developing the glove of one of the most important defensive positions on the field.

There’s a reason for that: usually the strain is too much as well, as catchers are squatting most of the game, have to lead the pitcher, call the game, remember every sign, throw down to second, and several countless jobs. It’s pretty tough to be in their shoes, and leading the field in general. You need to be a natural leader, and be able to position well and control the field, or else people are rampant.

Photo By Ernest Dove

Photo By Ernest Dove

Nido at 22 is actually relatively young in the Florida State League, considering most players coming to the league are either 20-21 coming into the year. An Amed Rosario at age 19 in 2015 does not happen very often, and most of the players are actually older. Nido currently is 0.7 younger the league average in age, according to Baseball Reference.

As for the bat, prospects are all different, they have different trajectories in general, and different tools manifest at different times in development. As I like to joke, “different strokes for different folks”. Some just have certain habits and mechanics to work on in general as they move up the ladder, and some work better with certain hitting coaches than others when it comes to learning the thing that will make you a better player, whether it’s timing, mechanics, mental, physical.

Nido abandoned selling out for power and instead opted for contact and trusting his natural strength. His isolated slugging is up to .150, which was .060 up from the last four year’s average, and climbing. With his natural power, it may get better as he develops and possibly evolve into 15+ homers, which is superlative for a catcher.

Should Nido continue down this road and hit well in Binghamton, the Mets will start seeing him more on the radar, but they may have to protect him from this upcoming Rule 5 draft. I’m sure the team will also consider sending Nido to the Arizona Fall League, come October, and a Top 10 prospect in the system now.

If Nido’s tools continue improve and polish up, there may be a better heir to the catching position than Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki are indicating right now.

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