James McCann, feeling unappreciated by Mets, enjoying life with the Orioles
Orioles catcher James McCann is interviewed after a game against the Mets on Friday in Baltimore. Credit: AP/Julio Cortez
BALTIMORE — Francisco Alvarez, the Mets’ best catcher, is making a relative pittance this year: the major-league minimum salary of $720,000, prorated for the time he has spent in the bigs.
Omar Narvaez, who was signed last offseason to play most of the time but plays barely at all, is a $7.5 million tab, as calculated for luxury-tax payroll reasons, in the first of his guaranteed two years.
But the catcher costing the Mets the most money in 2023? That would be James McCann, whom they traded to the Orioles shortly after adding Narvaez. As a part of the deal, the Mets are covering $9.5 million of McCann’s salary ($12 million) this season and next.
That fact made McCann smile Saturday afternoon before the Mets and Orioles played again and a day after he torched his former team with a 3-for-3, five-RBI effort (which also included a walk and a steal).
McCann is enjoying his new life with Baltimore, which leads the AL East and is on pace for 100 wins — a year after he was on a Mets team that won 101. But he said he “was never really given a chance,” particularly at the plate, after two seasons in New York.
“I’d like to think I could’ve brought something to that pitching staff over there,” McCann told Newsday. “But I’m not focused on that. I’m focused on what I bring to this team here and helping these guys win.”
Getting traded in December was not a surprise, McCann said, because “the writing was on the wall” last season even before the Mets added Narvaez.
He referenced “different conversations that I had,” inconsistent playing time and what he felt was not enough credit for his guiding of the pitching staff.
“I enjoyed my time there. It’s a great group of guys over there. It’s very interesting how things ended up,” McCann said. “Obviously, I didn’t produce offensively like I thought that I could, like I think that I can. But I also think no one ever really talked about what I brought from a game-management standpoint.
“The numbers are there, if you look at what my catcher’s ERA was last year, framing, what the pitching staff did the two years that I was there. We were a top-10 pitching staff the two years I was in New York. Take that for what you want.
“I know there’s no algorithm, there’s no number that you’re ever going to be able to put together to show what a catcher brings from a running-the-pitching-staff [standpoint] for 162 games and understand what it takes to get the best out of each pitcher.
“That’s fine. That’s the nature of the beast. I definitely don’t think I was ever given the credit there from that standpoint, what our pitching staff accomplished in two years when I was there.”
After signing a four-year, $40.6 million contract with the Mets before the 2021 season, he regressed offensively in his first season, then took another step backward in the second. He hit .195 with a .282 slugging percentage, albeit with expected numbers (based on batted-ball data) of .240 and .414.
His contention: When he wasn’t sidelined by a pair of major injuries, a broken wrist and a strained oblique, he started as many as three consecutive games just once all year.
“So I was never really given a chance,” McCann said. “If you look at my expected numbers offensively, it’s completely different than what my actual numbers were. From that standpoint, you’d think, hey, run this guy out there a couple more times and see if those balls start falling.”
McCann spoke highly of Mets players, saying, “I love my teammates over there.”
Manager Buck Showalter, avoiding a question about why it didn’t work with McCann and the Mets, likewise said, “We all pull for him because he was good for us as a human being and a teammate.”
Instead of working with Alvarez, McCann is the backup to Orioles All-Star Adley Rutschman, a centerpiece of their rebuilt roster. Rutschman called McCann “awesome” and a “great player, great teammate, great leader.”
McCann is hitting .215 with a .362 slugging mark in 141 plate appearances — still not his best (but better than Narvaez). The Orioles’ winning percentage seems to be more important.
“Winning is a lot of fun,” McCann said. “Two years in a row.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
