Henry Blanco, who played in 67 games with the San Diego Padres last season, is traveling to New York for a physical, according to El Nacional, via Adam Rubin.
Blanco, who would be the second catcher the Mets signed this off-season, hit .235 / .320 / .382 in 204 at bats last year with six home runs and 16 RBI.
This means one of three things to me.
1. The Mets don’t think they will sign Bengie Molina (be it they don’t want to pay or they think they’ll be outbid, we’ll see), and are stockpiling catchers because they don’t fully trust any of them.
2. The Mets are doing this to signal to Molina, “Hey, we don’t really need you, but we’ll sign you for X amount anyway.” Sort of a bargaining chip trying to give the Mets leverage.
3. They are really taking the progression of Josh Thole seriously. Bringing in veteran catchers, no matter their stats, who can give the young Thole tips, tricks and insight to playing in the league for so long. Catchers are considered the most knowledgeable position. Could this be the Mets creating a “Catching High Council” to tutor the future?