Mickey Callaway is Hurting the Mets by Not Permanently Pairing Jacob deGrom With Catcher Thomas Nido

The New York Mets have not gotten off to the start they anticipated, made worse by their loss to the worst team in baseball, the Miami Marlins, on Friday night.

Jacob deGrom has not lived up to expectations from his NL Cy Young winning campaign last year, and a recent statistic suggests that his catcher may be part of the reason for his woes.

When Wilson Ramos is behind the plate, deGrom this season has posted a 5.33 ERA across five starts. With Thomas Nido as his backstop, the numbers are night and day. deGrom has a 0.43 ERA in three starts working with the 25-year-old.

Even though these numbers are glaring, and suggest that the Mets should make this a permanent pairing, manager Mickey Callaway was bullish on the idea.

"Actually I think that first of all, things aren’t going well enough for anybody to demand their own catcher," said Callaway. "Second, Ramos is our starting catcher most days."

Callaway needs to take a step back and reconsider his options here. Pitching has been a major area of concern for the Queens-based team, and if there's a chance to mitigate the damage, the team should take all measures to achieve that.

The answer is staring Callaway in the face, in the form of Thomas Nido. Clearly him and deGrom work well together, so its difficult to see why Callaway wouldn't make that a permanent switch.

It will be interesting to see who is catching deGrom for his next start, as perhaps Callaway will see the light and opt for Nido as the backstop.