Tomas Nido looks to solidify his offensive breakout

Before last year, there wasn’t much excitement surrounding Tomas Nido. The former 8th-round pick in the 2012 draft never did much at the plate, with his career-best season coming in 2014 with the Brooklyn Cyclones. The catcher hit .277/.325/.335 with one home run, a .059 ISO, and a 20.6% strikeout rate. While he showed solid defensive skills, the offense was not there for Nido, and severely affected his stock as a prospect. That is, until 2016 came along.

Last season, his first with the St. Lucie Mets, was a revelation for the now-22-year-old. He hit .320/.357/.459 with seven home runs, and he cut his strikeout rate from 25.7% the season before all the way down to 11.4%, an excellent sign going forward. He also hit the ball with much more authority in last year, mashing 32 extra-base hits, toppling his previous career-high of 22 in 2015. On top of all this, his BABIP stayed right around his his marks from the previous two seasons—showing that this was not simply a lucky season, but a true bump in offensive ability.

2017 is undoubtedly the most important season of Nido’s young career. He can cement himself as one of the better prospects in the Mets system, and a legitimate option behind the plate. That’s a place that is very bare for the Mets behind Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki. Nido’s 2016 season has already rocketed Nido up the prospect rankings for the Mets, coming in highly at FanGraphs, MLB.com, Baseball America and our own rankings, and a big 2017 season can only improve his fast-rising stock.