Devin Mesoraco: The Catcher Behind The NL Cy Young Award Winner

In today’s baseball world of platoons and heavily researched lineups it is growing increasingly rare for any pitcher to have a personal catcher. This season Jacob deGrom was an exception to that trend, pitching to Devin Mesoraco in all but four of his starts after the Mets acquired the catcher on May 8th.

The pair’s first start together was perhaps the lone time they struggled. DeGrom walked three batters and only lasted one inning against the Phillies on May 13th. Fortunately the rough beginning did not prevent the battery mates from developing a rapport. With Mesoraco behind the plate deGrom posted a 1.60 ERA, 0.903 WHIP, and .193 BAA, each better than his overall result for the season (1.70 ERA, 0.912 WHIP, .196 BAA).

Right away, Mesoraco made a strong impression on manager Mickey Callaway, a former pitcher himself. He quickly earned praise for his leadership and control of the game.

“You watch him behind the plate and he’s really leading the pitcher. He’s really emphatic on where he wants the ball with his glove and his target,” said Callaway after Mesoraco’s first two games with the team.

After experiencing the catcher’s pregame preparation, Jacob deGrom remarked, “You come in and he’s already got a full scouting report written out. That makes it easy to stay on the same page.”

All catchers have a heavy workload and need to find a balance between working with their pitching staff and focusing on their offense. However, the choice was simple for Devin, and both before and after joining the Mets he knew working with pitchers was his top priority.

As a catcher so focused on the success of his pitchers, it is not surprising that one of those pitchers won a Cy Young Award. Mesoraco’s dedication to deGrom’s season was best illustrated as the catcher fought through a late-season back injury. The injury forced him to leave deGrom’s starts on August 23rd and September 3rd after just four innings. Nobody would have blamed him for shutting it down, especially after reaggravating the injury. But he was not ready to call it a season and he returned for deGrom’s final two starts. Mesoraco helped deGrom win both of those starts, reach 1000 career strikeouts, and bolster his Cy Young case.

The battery’s success is truly a testament to both Mesoraco’s commitment to his pitching staff and deGrom’s trust of a new catcher. Most pitchers and catchers have a month and a half of Spring Training to get to know each other and learn one another’s game, but this pair did it on the fly and it could not have worked out any better.

The success is also a testament to Mesoraco’s character alone. He has been plagued by injuries since his All-Star season in 2014, and his offense has suffered greatly. He could have buried himself in hitting work and put his duties as a catcher on the backburner until he rediscovered his home run stroke. But he seems to have done just the opposite — fully devoting himself to his pitching staff and letting his offense be what it may. He has made himself invaluable as a completely different player than the one who was an All-Star.

Mesoraco understandably will not take credit for any of deGrom’s season, telling NorthJersey.com, “He was going to be successful no matter who was back there catching.”

The numbers and work ethic do not lie though, and Devin Mesoraco deserves recognition for what he achieved with one of the best pitchers in baseball.