10:07pm: Both teams have announced a trade sending McCann and cash to Baltimore for a player to be named later. The Orioles designated infielder Tyler Nevin to clear a spot on their 40-man roster.
10:01pm: The O’s are assuming $5MM of the $24MM still to be paid on McCann’s contract, Feinsand adds (Twitter link). New York will kick in $19MM over the next two seasons.
9:54pm: New York is acquiring a player to be named later in the deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on Twitter).
9:53pm: The Orioles are acquiring catcher James McCann from the Mets, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link).
The Mets have been shopping McCann in recent days. New York agreed to terms with Omar Narváez on a two-year contract last Thursday. As soon as news of that agreement broke, it became clear the Mets were likely to deal one of their incumbent backstops. Neither McCann nor Tomás Nido could be sent to the minor leagues, and carrying three catchers on the 26-man roster would’ve been challenging. That’s before considering top prospect Francisco Álvarez, who figures to get an extended MLB look at some point soon after debuting late in the 2022 season.
McCann is at least assured of a roster spot in Baltimore. The O’s entered the day with just one catcher on their 40-man roster, making it an inevitability they’d bring in some help from outside the organization. Of course, that backstop is AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Adley Rutschman. McCann will have to move into a backup role with the O’s. He’ll add a veteran presence to the bench for skipper Brandon Hyde.
The past couple seasons have been rough for McCann, who first joined the Mets over the 2020-21 offseason. New York placed a sizable bet on the veteran backstop’s previous couple seasons with the White Sox. The University of Arkansas product had hit .276/.334/.474 through 587 plate appearances for Chicago between 2019-20. That handily dwarfed the .240/.288/.366 mark he’d posted over the preceding four-plus seasons with the Tigers, and the Mets clearly felt he’d turned a corner offensively. They inked him to a four-year, $40.6MM free agent contract that handily topped most expectations.
New York gave McCann extended run in his first season, starting him at catcher for 97 of their 162 games in 2021. His production more closely resembled that of his Detroit days, however. He hit .232/.294/.349 over 412 plate appearances, connecting on just 10 home runs after hitting 18 longballs in his only full season with the White Sox. Nevertheless, McCann was back in the Opening Day lineup for the second season of the deal as the Mets hoped for a bounceback campaign.
That wasn’t to be, as he struggled with both underperformance and injury this year. The veteran fractured the hamate in his left hand/wrist in mid-May. He required surgery and lost six weeks to rehab. A few weeks after his return, he suffered a strain in his left oblique and went back on the injured list for a little less than a month. In between the health setbacks, he managed just a .195/.257/.282 line in 61 games. By the time the postseason rolled around, Nido was starting behind the dish. McCann was relegated to a depth role, while Álvarez was with the big league club in a catcher/DH hybrid role.
The past two seasons certainly aren’t what the Mets had envisioned when they signed McCann. As a result, they’re left to pay down a notable chunk of the remaining money on his contract. His deal was backloaded, with a $600K signing bonus followed by successive $8MM salaries in the first two seasons. He’s due $12MM in each of the next two years, the bulk of which will remain on the Mets’ ledger.
While New York only sheds $5MM in actual salary, their actual savings from the deal are a bit more than that for owner Steve Cohen and his front office. New York is going to shatter all four thresholds of the competitive balance tax, meaning they’re paying a 90% tax for every additional dollar spent. That works in reverse as well, with any cuts to the payroll magnified beyond the actual salary. Subtracting $2.5MM in annual salary over the next two seasons will also save the club $2.25MM in taxes in 2023 and, if they were to pass all four tax thresholds again in 2024, around $2.75MM in taxes that year. (The luxury tax contains higher penalties for teams that exceed the threshold in multiple consecutive seasons). All told, the savings for the Mets are likely to be closer to $10MM than the $5MM the Baltimore organization is chipping in.
More to come.
