Omir Santos Catching On With Mets

Brian Schneider landed on the disabled list on April 17, prompting the New York Mets to call up a backup catcher.  Omir Santos was tabbed to play behind Ramon Castro as Schneider was out of commission.

Santos got in a game that same day, taking over in the top of the ninth inning after Castro was pinch-run for in the bottom of the 8th.  J.J. Putz, who was Santos’ battery mate that day, turned in a 1-2-3 inning, and the game went to the bottom of the ninth tied at 4.

Santos came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with two runners on and one out.  Though he went 0-1 that day, his groundout to shortstop moved the runners up a base.  This set the scene for Luis Castillo, who singled in the winning run.  Without Santos’ groundout, Castillo probably would not have driven in the game-winner with his infield single.

The very next day, Santos again came in late for Castro.  He entered as a pinch runner for Castro after he worked out a walk against Carlos Villanueva.  Cora put the ball in play and after an error from Rickie Weeks, Santos was able to move over to third.  Jose Reyes followed up with a fielder’s choice that allowed Santos the score.

Santos was set behind the plate for the final two innings as Putz and Francisco Rodriguez made the one run stand up and the Mets went on to win the game 1-0.

Finishing out the series for Castro, Santos got his first start as a member of the New York Mets on April 19.  He went 2-4 with a double and a triple, scoring once.

Over the next six games, Santos picked up five hits as he started four games in a row.  On April 27, Santos hit his first major league home run, a grand slam in the first inning against the Florida Marlins.

Yesterday, Santos got his first day off in four days with Castro taking the start in the finale against the Marlins.  But it was not a true day off.  With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Mets down by one, Castro was set to face Matt Lindstrom.

Instead, Jerry Manuel called for Santos to grab his bat and pinch hit.  Santos eventually popped up to end the game, but this leaves some things to be questioned.  Was it the right move and why did Manuel make this move?

After the game, Manuel said that Santos’ shorter swing would be beneficial against the hard-throwing Lindstrom. 

Joe Janish of Mets Today took Manuel to task:

Manuel stated this with conviction and clarity, and looked every writer in the eye as he said it. It was still absolute idiocy.

First is the obvious: Ramon Castro has 11 years’ big league experience, compared to Santos’ 35 MLB at-bats.

Second is the just as obvious: Castro already had two hits on the day, both off of Josh Johnson, who BY THE WAY was throwing in the upper 90s. In fact his 97-98 MPH fastballs were only a mile or two slower than Matt Lindstrom’s 98-99 MPH heaters.

Third is the nearly as obvious: Santos was “cold”, meaning, he’d been sitting on the bench all game. Pinch-hitting is hard enough, but to come into a game late and face a guy throwing that kind of gas … well, it’s damn near impossible to get a hit.

Fourth is the not-so-obvious: Omir Santos was unprepared to pinch-hit. He was so sure he had no chance of getting into the game at that point, he was somewhere in the clubhouse (getting undressed? head start on the caterer’s table? on the can?).

True, Santos does have a much shorter swing than Castro but he had already gone 2-4 against Josh Johnson that day.

This leads me to believe the Mets, or at least Manuel, has more faith in Santos than he does in Castro.  Does this make Castro expendable?

The Mets had looked into trading Castro during the off-season.  It seems the market was bone dry, just as it is right now.  The next best option would be to cut him, but they would still have to pay the $2.5 million of his contract.

What will most likely happen is the team will demote Santos once Schneider is ready to return.  He’s done a great job for the team so far after being called up from Triple-A.  The Mets just can’t justify keeping up three catchers on the major league roster.

For Santos, though, he can take solace in the fact that both catchers on the roster are very injury prone.  If when another injury to one of the catchers gets hurt, the Mets have a very competent backup catcher waiting in the wings.

Topics: Brian Schneider, Jerry Manuel, omir santos, Ramon Castro

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