Out of the Blue

By Jack Flynn
Posted Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Who is Omir Santos? Two weeks ago, most Mets fans would have been hard-pressed to answer that question.

This morning, Santos stands out as one of the few bright spots of the Mets’ season so far – which perhaps says more about the rocky start that the Mets have gotten to off than anything else.

Santos went 1 for 4 in Tuesday night’s loss to the Florida Marlins, his fourth straight start behind the plate. He has temporarily made Ramon Castro a forgotten man, although Castro has only himself to blame for failing to seize the starting catcher’s job in the wake of Brian Schneider’s trip to the disabled list.

Schneider figures to be back on Friday and when that happens, Santos will probably be put on a plane and sent back to Triple-A Buffalo to make room on the roster for him. Still, Santos’s performance over the last two weeks suggests that Mets fans have not seen the last of him in 2009.

So who is Omir Santos? He’s nobody’s idea of a hot prospect, that’s for sure. Other than being named the Best Defensive Catcher in the New York Yankees farm system after the 2005 season, Santos has generally flown under the radar of most prospect evaluators throughout his professional career.

Santos is actually a refugee from the Yankees farm system, which he was drafted into in the 21st Round of the June 2001 Draft. Santos spent seven years with the organization, working his way from short-season A ball in Staten Island all the way to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

His offensive stats were mostly unremarkable throughout, showing little power or patience at stops with seven different Yankee affiliates. Santos was the very definition of an “organizational soldier” with the Yankees; someone who fills out a roster but has little chance of ever reaching The Show.

The Yankees decided to cut bait before the 2008 season began and Santos landed with the Norfolk Tides in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization. (Remember the Tides, Mets fans?) There he wrestled away the starting job for a thoroughly mediocre Tides team that limped home to a 64-78 record. Santos’s reward was a September call-up to the parent club for his MLB debut, where he did nothing to suggest he could ever be a starting catcher in the major leagues.

The Orioles apparently weren’t overly impressed, either, as they allowed Santos to explore free agency and eventually sign a minor-league deal with the Mets. (Perhaps Santos can take solace in the idea that the Orioles may have been more interested in making room on the Norfolk roster for the current catcher, super-prospect Matt Wieters.)

When the Mets picked him up and invited him to Spring Training, Santos was still seen as little more than organizational filler. Schneider and Castro were each ticketed for the big club, although there have been persistent rumors that Mets general manager Omar Minaya tried unsuccessfully to trade Castro in the off-season. Even then, Robinson Cancel seemed the most likely to benefit from Castro’s potential departure, as he was the presumed frontrunner for the spot as Schneider’s backup.

What happened instead, according to Flushing University’s own Mack from Mack’s Mets, was that the organization’s braintrust found themselves especially impressed with the work of Santos and catcher Rene Rivera during Spring Training this year. As a result, Buffalo found itself with three catchers when the Triple-A season began, to accommodate Cancel and the two backstops who opened eyes in Port St. Lucie.

Surprisingly, when Schneider was placed on the disabled list in mid-April with back problems, it was Santos and not Cancel who got the call to replace him. He has made the most of his opportunities, going 7 for 25 with a grand slam in eight games since the call-up. Now, Santos has presumably leap-frogged Cancel and Rivera in the catcher hierarchy and seems likely to see the majority of playing time in Buffalo once he returns.

The question is, how long will Santos be a Bison? Minaya has surely taken notice of his work over the last two weeks. If the general manager was willing to trade Castro before, certainly he’s even more willing now. Of course, there still isn’t much of a market for a 33-year-old backup catcher who is guaranteed $2.5 million this year.

As it stands, Schneider and Castro figure to be the catching tandem for the foreseeable future. Santos is the odd man out for now, but he may not be out for very long.

(You can read more of Jack’s work on his blog, Productive Outs and Crackerjack.)