During the offseason, Tomás Nido’s remaining arbitration years got bought out by the Mets, as he signed a two-year, $3.7 million deal. This came after the team shipped James McCann to Baltimore following another dismal from their primary backstop.
Of course, the Mets have Francisco Álvarez waiting to take over those duties, but after only a few at-bats in the majors last season, the team is probably unwilling to hand the job to him right now. Mets general manager Billy Eppler already stated this spring that the team prefers to keep their top prospect at catcher instead of DH, so chances are he’ll get some time in the minors to start the season to continue to work on his defense.