The Mets have had plenty of catchers who could handle the job on both sides of the ball, but one of the quieter ways they’ve stood out is by shutting down the running game. Caught stealing percentage doesn’t usually grab the spotlight, yet a handful of Mets backstops have been the best in the league at it.
Chris Cannizzaro was the first to do it for New York, and he did it twice. The original Mets catcher, taken from the St.
Louis Cardinals in the expansion draft, led the league in caught stealing percentage in 1962 and 1965. He posted marks of 55.6% in 1962 and 52.5% in 1965.
He didn’t top the league in 1964, but he was even better that season at 59.3%.
Alex Trevino followed with back-to-back NL leads in 1979 and 1980. A homegrown Mets catcher later involved in the George Foster trade, Trevino threw out 47.7% of runners in 1979 and 44.3% the next year.
Charlie O’Brien claimed the NL lead in 1990, a season that also ended with the Mets missing the playoffs. He caught just part of the year in New York after arriving in late August from the Milwaukee Brewers in a trade, but he still qualified by throwing out 16 of 35 attempted base stealers. His caught stealing percentage came in at 45.7%.
Vance Wilson did it in 2002 during his first full season as the Mets’ backup catcher. He posted a 49% caught stealing rate, making his mark in an era when the home run was king.
The most recent name on the list is Luis Torrens, who led the league in 2025 by throwing out 40.8% of attempted base stealers. That number stands out even more because of the environment around him: the previous two NL leaders were at 33.3% in 2024 and 38.6% in 2023, and those are the two lowest totals ever to lead the NL in MLB history.
In Other News...
Mets Fans Have A New Francisco Alvarez Disaster To Argue Over
The Mets opened their final series of the season with a 7-6 loss to the Nationals, and for a team already spending a lot of time reflecting on what went wrong, the middle innings supplied another frustrating snapshot. New York went with a bullpen game, and the third inning quickly became the kind of mess that tends to linger in memory, especially when it comes with Francisco Alvarez behind the plate and three wild pitches piling up around him.
There was some history mixed in on the other side of the ledger, too, as Bo Bichette launched a milestone home run and became the first Mets rookie to reach the 20/20 club. But the larger conversation for Mets fans is likely to stay centered on Alvarez and the latest ugly moment attached to his catching, because in a season full of uneven stretches, this one arrived at exactly the wrong time and only deepened the questions around him. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Season Finale Just Got More Complicated Than Fans Expected
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Washingtons season has already taken on a different tone, with the Nationals finishing at 76 wins, their best mark since 2019 and a sign of real progress after several lean years. Their front office, now led by President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni, is expected to spend the offseason looking for roster upgrades, which only adds to the sense that this final meeting with the Mets is less of a routine wrap-up than a checkpoint for where both teams are headed next. [Read more 🡒]
Bo Bichettes Mets Future Suddenly Feels More Complicated
Bo Bichettes next move has become a little easier to frame, and a lot harder to predict, after the Mets made Andy Green their full-time manager. Bichette said Greens presence matters as he weighs whether to opt out of his contract this winter, and he made clear just how much he values the skipper he has long called his favorite manager. For a player with a major decision ahead, the Mets move on the bench did more than fill a vacancy, it added another important layer to the conversation.
Green, for his part, is trying not to crowd the process. He said he respects Bichettes choice and is giving him room to determine what is best for him and his family, which leaves the Mets waiting along with everyone else. The relationship between player and manager is now part of the calculus, and while that does not settle Bichettes future, it does make the winter feel like it could turn in a few different directions. [Read more 🡒]