2021 Mets Report Card: James McCann, C

Player Data: Age: 31 (6/13/1990), B/T: R/R

Primary Stats: 121 G, 412 PA, .232 BA, .294, OBP, .349 SLG, .643 OPS, 87 H, 10 HR, 46 RBI, 32 BB, 115 SO

Advanced Stats: 80 wRC+, 27.9 K%, 7.8 BB%, .304 BABIP, .284 xwOBA, 0.5 fWAR, -0.2 bWAR

2021 Salary: $8,000,000 (+$600,000 signing bonus)

Grade: D

2021 Recap

On December 15, the Mets signed James McCann to a four-year contract worth $40.6 million. McCann was known as a defense-first catcher when he was getting a bulk of the playing time for the Detroit Tigers. After being non-tendered, he broke out with the White Sox in 2019 and 2020. He hit .276/.334/.474 with 25 homers over 587 plate appearances in Chicago. Rather than taking part in a bidding war for J.T. Realmuto, the Mets quickly jumped on the second best catcher on the free agent market. Like so many other Mets in 2021, McCann did not live up to expectations in the first year of his new deal.

McCann’s success with the White Sox was driven by a new approach at the plate. He switched from a traditional batting stance to a much more open stance, and went back to a big leg kick that he had scrapped in 2016.

Just as quickly as McCann’s bat broke out with the White Sox, it regressed with the Mets. McCann destroyed left-handed pitching in Chicago, and he was putting up league average numbers against right-handed pitchers. After coming to New York, McCann hit .257/.336/.407 against left-handers and just .221/.275/.324 against righties.

It would be difficult to pinpoint the root of McCann’s struggles since he struggled in a number of different aspects, but one possibility is his issues all stemmed from his inability to do damage against fastballs. McCann actually cut down on the swings-and-misses against fastballs in 2021. He swung and missed 21.5% of fastballs in 2021, an improvement from his 27.4% in 2020 and his 23.8% in 2019. Despite whiffing more in Chicago, he did significantly more damage when he made contact. After hitting .283 and slugging .455 against fastballs in 2019 then hitting .326 and slugging .478 in 2020, McCann hit just .245 and slugged .371 against fastballs in 2021.

McCann’s struggles against fastballs could have led to him committing to the fastball more often, which could explain the similar drop offs against off-speed and breaking balls. Despite never having much success against breaking balls, McCann still saw his average drop .032 points and slugging percentage drop .132 points from his All-Star campaign in 2019. The drop-off against off-speed was more significant, as the average dropped .069 points and slugging dropped .269 in that same span.

Things were not all bad for McCann offensively in 2021. He had a strong June that saw him produce a slash line of .288/.341/.500 and hit four of his ten home runs in 80 at-bats. His extra-base hit power disappeared in July, but he still managed to hit .286/.366/.333 with one home run being the only extra-base hit in 63 at-bats. Unfortunately for McCann, his averages fell to .158 in August and .169 in September.

As you can expect from a hitter who struggled against every kind of pitch, McCann’s overall numbers took a big hit compared to his breakout 2019. His barrel percentage dropped from 8.9% to 6.1%, and his ground ball percentage rose from 43.9% to 52.1%. With less balls being squared up and more balls being hit on the ground, it is not much of a surprise why McCann’s power seemed to completely disappear just as quickly as it arrived two years ago.

While the Mets certainly expected more from McCann offensively in the first year of his four year deal, the upgrade they got on defense going from Wilson Ramos to McCann was also an important factor in brining the Arkansas native to Queens. He was in the middle of the pack in terms of pitch-framing, converting 47.9% of pitches in the shadow zone (described by statcast as one ball width inside and one ball width outside the strike zone) into strikes. This was good for 35th among 59 catchers who qualified. His -5 DRS was also near the bottom of the league among starting catchers.

The biggest plus for McCann on defense was his arm. “McCannon” caught 27% of base stealers, an area the Mets desperately needed to improve on. The most memorable one came 0n April 18 to close out a win in Colorado.

A walk-off caught stealing thanks to a PERFECT throw from James McCann and the @Mets win the series! ????

(via @SNYtv) pic.twitter.com/FcJaoDTZtv

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 18, 2021

McCann was never expected to step in and be the league’s best hitter, but there was hope that he could sustain the success he had with the White Sox. With his offensive numbers dropping drastically across the board, it is hard to give him a grade any higher than a D. He was not a gold glove level catcher, but since he was certainly an upgrade defensively and allowed the Mets to have a major league level catcher behind the plate every night between him and Tomás Nido, I couldn’t call his first season in New York a complete failure.

2022 Outlook

When the Mets signed McCann rather than going for longer term with Realmuto, it sent the message that they plan to have the position available when Francisco Álvarez is ready. McCann will likely still be the team’s number one catcher, getting a bulk of the playing time with Nido backing him up. The two of them will most likely continue in this role in 2022 and beyond until Álvarez is ready to take the reins.

With a year under his belt in New York, a smaller role offensively behind all the Mets’ new additions could be what he needs to find a middle ground between his Tiger days and his White Sox days.

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