John Buck: Former Mets Catcher (2013)

Jonathan Richard Buck was born on July 7th, 1980, in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The six foot two catcher is one of two active MLB players currently playing that were born in the state of Wyoming.

Buck was drafted by the Houston Astros in the seventh round of the 1988 draft. Buck spent five years at the low level of A ball in the minor leagues.

By 2003, he improved his defense so well behind the plate, he was voted the minor leagues 21st best prospect while playing at AAA New Orleans. In 2004 he got his average up to .300 & was brought up to the majors. 

Royals Career: In June of 2004 Buck was involved in a big three team trade, that sent him to the Kansas City Royals along with Mark Teahan & Mike Wood. In the trade Carlos Beltran went to the Houston Astros & Octavio Dotel to the Oakland Athletics. He saw playing time right away replacing the veteran catcher, Benito Santiago.

Buck's defense was good enough to keep him in the lineup & by the end of the year he had hit 12 HRs with 35 RBIs batting .235 in 71 games coming in eighth in the Rookie of the Year voting. 

Buck would spend six years in Kansas City as the Royals main catcher, coming in the league's top five in fielding twice, posting .994% or better each time. In 2009 he led the league in errors, after posting eight errors in three straight seasons. 

On Field Drama: In 2006, he got into a heated argument, that led to a scuffle in the dugout with pitcher Runelvys Hernandez during a game against the Cleveland Indians. Although the pitcher denied anything happened & manager Buddy Bell said it was just a misunderstanding.

Blue Jays Career: In 2010 he signed as a free agent with the Toronto Blue Jays, having the best year of his career. He hit 20 HRs with 25 doubles & 66 RBIs while batting .281 (all career highs).

Multi- Three HR Game: On April 29th he hit three HRs in a game, driving in five of the six runs in a win against the Oakland Athletics. 

Buck then hit two HRs in a game in both May & June & had 13 by the All-Star break.

2010 All Star: That year Buck was selected to the All-Star team playing behind starter Joe Mauer. In the game at Anaheim, Buck doubled off the Cardinals Adam Wainwright, going 1-2 in the National Leagues 3-1 win. 

Grand Slam: At the end of the year, he signed on with the Florida Marlins. In his first Marlins
game on Opening Day, he hit a grand slam HR, off the New York Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey. It was his third career grand slam. He would hit another in late August in a win over the Phillies.

He was the club's main catcher for two seasons, throwing out the league's lowest percent of base runners attempting to steal, in 2011, while hitting 16 HRs with 57 RBIs. 

Good Samaritan: That off season he helped save two elderly women, in an overturned car in Sunrise Florida.

In 2012 he batted just .192 with 12 HRs & 41 RBIs. At the end of the season, he was traded to the Blue Jays along with Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson & Emilio Bonifacio for Jeff Mathis, Yuneil Escobar, Hendersen Alvarez, Adeiny Hechavarria & three minor leaguers.

In December he was traded to the New York Mets along with Travis d'Arnard, Noah Syndergaard & Wuilmer Becerra for R.A. Dickey, Josh Thole & Mike Nickeas.

Mets Career: John Buck's arrival in New York was thought of as just filling in time, while providing veteran leadership until Travis d'Arnard was ready for the big leagues. With d'Arnaud suffering an injury & getting more time to fine tune his skills, Buck rose to the occasion.

But Buck had an incredible start to the year, surprising everyone with a huge April.

2013: On Opening Day, he had two hits, while driving in a run in the Mets 11-2 win over the San Diego Padres. 

Multi- RBI Games: The next day he hit a two run HR off Clayton Richard & added an RBI single for a multi- three RBI game in the Mets 8-4 win. The next day he hit another HR, driving in the lone Mets run of the 2-1 loss. .

On April 6th, he drove in four runs, with an two run double & a pair of sac flies in a 7-3 win over the Marlin at Citi Field. After five games, Buck was batting .421 with two HRs & seven RBIs through his first full week.

From April 8th to April 10th, he hit HRs in four straight games & drove in a combined ten runs in the four-game stretch. 

Grand Slam HR: On April 12th, Buck hit his fifth career grand slam HR, coming off the Twins Pedro Hernandez at Target Field in a 16-5 win at Minnesota.

The next night he was behind the plate, calling the signals for Mets pitcher Mike Harvey who took a no hitter into the 7th inning. 

From April 19th thru April 21st, Buck drove in runs in three more straight games. On April 21st at Citi Field, Buck hit a HR off the Nat's Jordan Zimmerman, driving in one of the two Mets runs in Dillon Gee's 2-0 win.

Mets April HR Record: On April 29th in a loss at South Florida, Buck hit a 4th inning HR off Jose Hernandez which tied a Mets franchise record for nine HRs in the month of April. In the month he also drove in 25 runs with an .844 OPS.

On May 1st, he doubled driving in two runs that turned out to be the games winning runs in the 7-6 win at Florida. On May 3rd, Buck hit his tenth HR of the young season, a two-run shot in Atlanta off the Braves Mike Minor in a 7-5 Mets victory.

Buck slowly cooled off, not hitting another HR until the Braves came to Citi Field on May 24th. He would drive in ten runs in the month but saw his average fall to .220 by the start of June. 

He did not hit another HR until June 18th, which also came against the Braves in a Matt Harvey 4-3 win, in the first game of a double header sweep. In the second game of the twin-bill Zack Wheeler made his MLB debut.

On June 30th Buck hit his 13th HR of the year, coming at Citi Field in a 13-2 debacle of a loss to the Washington Nat's. 

From July 5th to July 15th Buck had a seven-game hit streak while driving in nine runs batting .367 with eleven overall hits in that span. John also had four multi-hit games & three muti RBI games in the stretch.

Multi- Three RBI Game: On July 25th at Citi Field, he had a big night against Atlanta starting out with a two-run single in the 3rd inning. Later he doubled, scoring David Wright with his third RBI of the night in the 7-4 Met win. 

The next day he drove in the only run in the Mets 2-1 loss to the Nats.

On July 30th, in the top of the 10th inning in a tie with the Marlins in Miami, Bucks 10th inning two run single scored David Wright & Marlon Byrd leading New York to the 4-2 win.

On August 15th, in a 4-1 win at San Diego Buck hit his 15th HR of the year, marking the third time in his career he reached that mark. 

Also, on that road trip he hit safely in all three games of a set In L.A. & drove in runs in two of the games.

That month John Buck was on standby, awaiting his wife to give birth back to their third child. At this time, the Mets chose to bring up their highly touted catching prospect; Travis d'Arnaud.

Shortly after Travis arrived the Mets determined he was the number one catcher. 

Matt Harvey Injury: On August 26th, Mets star pitcher Matt Harvey was diagnosed with a UCL tear in his elbow. During that night's game at Citi Field, John Buck consoled the pitcher he had enjoyed catching & helped guide all season in New York.

The next day, The Mets traded Buck & Marlon Byrd to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Dilson Herrera & a player to be named later.

Post Mets Career: The rest of the year, Buck would play in nine games for the Pirates as a backup to Russell Martin & Jose Tabata. 

In 2013 Buck hit 15 HRs & 11 doubles with 62 RBIs while batting .222 with a .288 on base %. 

Behind the plate he had thrown out 29 % of would-be base stealers & had 746 putouts. 

In 2014, he was signed by the Seattle Mariners where he played 27 games before being released. At the end of July, he was signed by the L.A. Angels playing five more games there. In 2015 he officially retired.

Career Stats: In his eleven-year career hit .234 with 844 hits 134 HRs 172 doubles 491 RBIs & a .301 on base %. 

Buck caught 1042 games with 6733 put outs (50th all time) with a .992 fielding % (50th all time) making 58 errors throwing out 25% of would-be base stealers.

Retirement: After baseball Buck has created a workout program & mental health training business called "Level Up Performance" where he combines sports training techniques for fire fighters & SWAT teams.

Family: John & his wife Brooke have three sons.