Tomás Nido is catching Jacob deGrom Saturday night for the third consecutive time, but Nido is not and won't be deGrom's personal catcher.
Why? Because the Mets will need Wilson Ramos to catch deGrom in the playoffs, Mickey Callaway says.
"We could (keep Nido with deGrom,) but then in the playoffs we'd be running into a sticky situation," Callaway said before Saturday's game in Phoenix. "Look, it's not something that we're debating, it's just something that's gonna happen."
Entering Saturday's game, deGrom has a 1.12 ERA and .491 opposing OPS in five starts with Nido behind the plate, and a 5.33 ERA with a .742 OPS against in five starts with Ramos -- whom the Mets signed during the offseason to a two-year, $19 million contract -- behind the plate.
So Nido won't be deGrom's personal catcher, but Nido is catching deGrom Saturday because that's how the team had lined up their catchers, according to Callaway.
Despite Tomas Nido catching deGrom for the third start in a row, the Mets still don't plan on having him be deGrom's personal catcher
- SNY (@SNYtv) June 1, 2019
One reason? "In the playoffs, we'd be running into a sticky situation" 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/YVSzUpdcaJ
"We're trying to get Jacob on a roll right now," Callaway said. "We think both (deGrom and Ramos) are aware that this probably can't continue to happen, just because we need Ramos to play in a majority of our games. You (can't always) line it up, but if we can line it up we will. They both understand that we've got to continue to communicate and build that relationship so we can get them clicking together at some point."
The Mets entered Saturday's game five games back of the NL East-leading Phillies.