James McCann’s lack of an at-bat in the 10th inning of the Mets’ loss to the Marlins on Wednesday was a fitting encapsulation of how his first season in New York has panned out.
McCann, signed to a four-year, $40.6 million deal this past offseason and expected to provide a big boost from behind the plate and in the batter’s box, was called back with two outs in the top of the 10th and replaced by pinch hitter Patrick Mazeika, the team’s third-string catcher who is batting .197 in 84 career big-league plate appearances.
Mazeika grounded out to end the inning and New York lost in the bottom half of the frame, and manager Luis Rojas fielded plenty of questions about the decision afterward, but said it strictly came down to matchups against Miami reliever Anthony Bender.
“It was the matchup once again,” Rojas said. “Bender is a guy that has a sinker/slider mix, and it’s really tough for right handed hitters. You saw the [Javier Baez] Baez at-bat, and [Luis] Guillorme’s at-bat can take a little off the slider where he has to be probably a little more perfect placing it versus a lefty, an that’s why we went with the pinch hit decision there…and Maizeka but the ball in play.”
Baez, a righty, got ahead in the count 1-0 before striking out on three straight sliders from the righty Bender, and the lefty Guillorme later worked a walk to put the go-ahead run on base. But instead of sticking with the veteran McCann, who was an All-Star in 2019 and posted an OPS of nearly .900 last year, Rojas went with the rookie Mazeika.
The Mets also had J.D. Davis available, who is batting nearly .300 this season, but Rojas didn’t want a righty up against Bender, who has held righties to a .173 batting average this year, compared to .219 against lefties.
“We wanted to go with the lefty there because of the slider,” Rojas said. “That was the decision. It was the matchup at the moment that we had, just to take the slider off of Bender. Davis was in the on deck circle, but we wanted to string the lefties after Baez.”
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One of the big takeaways from the decision was the lack of faith in McCann, a big free agent signing who is batting just .236 in the first year of his contract. Clearly, the Mets have lost some trust in their starting catcher.
“It’s not easy to do,” Rojas said. “But at the moment and the situation of the game, we have the left handed bat off the bench and it’s something we can use, because Bender isn’t easy to face as a right handed hitter.”
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