PHILADELPHIA — Travis d’Arnaud returned to the Mets’ lineup Thursday, but unless he begins showing dramatic improvement, that might not be such a good thing.
“At this point you would put him in the overhyped category for sure,” a major league scout said before the Mets faced the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
The rookie, who spent the last two weeks recovering from a concussion, entered play batting .196 with three homers and eight RBIs in 102 at-bats.
It’s a continuation of what the Mets saw from d’Arnaud in 2013, when he hit .202 over the final six weeks of the season.
“I think he’s made big strides defensively,” manager Terry Collins said. “That’s what I’ve said before, he’s come with huge grades offensively and I would certainly like to get that on track.”
D’Arnaud would only say he wasn’t happy with his plate approach before his concussion. What will he change?
“Just work with L.J. and we’ll figure it out,” d’Arnaud said, referring to new hitting coach Lamar Johnson.
As the organization’s minor league hitting coordinator, Johnson’s exposure to d’Arnaud was limited last season. The catcher sustained a broken left foot at Triple-A Las Vegas in April and was summoned to the big leagues two weeks after his return from the disabled list.
Johnson, who arrived Tuesday as the replacement for fired hitting coach Dave Hudgens, said he hasn’t watched video of d’Arnaud’s at-bats.
“I’m going to watch him in the games,” Johnson said. “I like to look at game situations and then we’ll make an evaluation — after I see him in games.”
Behind the plate, d’Arnaud is switching up his face wear, ditching the hockey-style mask he had been wearing for a more conventional one.
As much as the Mets want to see the 25-year-old d’Arnaud succeed — he was the linchpin of the deal that sent R.A. Dickey to the Blue Jays before the 2013 season — he could be benched or demoted to Triple-A if his production doesn’t soon increase.
Anthony Recker is batting .229 with two homers and six RBIs in 70 at-bats as the backup catcher.
Collins was asked if this is a critical stretch for d’Arnaud.
“I don’t know if it’s a critical stretch,” Collins said. “We’ve got to start to get some offense out of our catching position for sure. Both those guys are offensive-minded people. That’s why they are both here.”
During spring training, d’Arnaud spent time working with Mike Piazza, and spoke with the former All-Star catcher this month when the Mets were in Miami. D’Arnaud said he may give Piazza a call once he retrieves a phone that was misplaced this week during his rehab assignment at Double-A Binghamton.
Piazza’s message in spring training was for d’Arnaud to use the entire field. Collins has the same idea.
“It’s tough to figure,” Collins said. “One of the things that he’s shown, which we’ve seen, is an ability to use all the fields, and I think as long as he stays with that approach to spray the ball around, he’s going to have a lot of success.
“Where he starts to run into trouble is where he’s trying to perhaps pull or hit for some power rather than just put good swings on the ball, because he’s got good strength. We’ve seen that.”