Tomas Nido Breaks Through

NEW YORK—Catcher Tomas Nido withdrew from the Arizona Fall League after injuring a side muscle on the eve of his first game. Still, he completed a banner year in 2016 that included a Florida State League batting title and a place on the 40-man roster in November.

Nido also threw out 42 percent of basestealers at high Class A St. Lucie, while hitting .320/.357/.459 in 90 games.

“I think my strength is throwing people out,” said Nido, 22. “But I think I’ve gotten a lot better with my game-calling and trying . . . to get the pitcher through those six or seven innings and to minimize the damage.

“I do my best to study the hitters beforehand. And, along with the pitching coach, we go into the game with a plan. I think that’s my strength right now—more game-calling and throwing guys out.”

The Mets selected Nido in the eighth round of the 2012 draft out of Orangewood Christian High, just north of Orlando. A $250,000 bonus helped entice him to sign rather than attend Florida State.

Nido was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He moved to Florida to play high school baseball. Initially, he lived with the family of prep teammate Vince Conde. When Conde graduated, Nido’s mother moved to the Orlando area for the remainder of his high school stay, while his sisters stayed behind in Puerto Rico.

Conde, a second baseman, was drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round in 2014 out of Vanderbilt and also played in the Florida State League last season. Fellow prep teammate Dante Bichette Jr., a third baseman, was selected with a supplemental first-round pick in 2011, also by the Yankees.

“At first when I moved here it was just really me by myself and Vince’s family,” Nido said. “We were pretty close. It’s like a second family. It was pretty comfortable to move. It wasn’t like I was moving here with people I didn’t know.”

NEW YORK MINUTES

•The Mets hired Chad Kreuter to manage at St. Lucie. He coached at Southern California in between stints as a minor league manager for the Rockies (2006) and field coordinator for the Diamondbacks (2011).

• Among the prospect the Mets invited to big league camp are first baseman Dominic Smith, lefthander P.J. Conlon, shortstops Phillip Evans and Luis Guillorme and righthander Corey Taylor.

— Adam Rubin is a writer based in New York