Mark Tiexeira.
Robinson Cano.
What do these players all have in common? If you said they are all overpaid, you'd be right. If you said they are all overvalued, you'd be right. If you said they all have an on-base percentage lower than Josh Thole, you'd be...right?
Thole currently sits at a .355 OBP.
His defense is disappointing. Whereas last year, he was exactly average defensively, with 0 runs created or lost, this season so far he has cost the Mets 4 runs with his sub-par defense (non-scientific observation: he is lazy on balls in the dirt and needs to work on his transfer speed on throws to 2nd). He has a lot of work to do if he wants to stick in the majors as a Catcher, as teams tend to favor defense behind the plate (and with the Mets, he has no future at first, or even platooning there, with lefty hitting Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy and Lucas Duda all impressing).
But he has given the Mets exactly what they need as part of an organizational change of philosophy: a good eye and some patience at the plate. Among Catchers with at least 250 PAs, he sits at 6th in the majors in BB%, 7th in K%, 11th in AVG, 8th in OBP and is just about a league average hitter by the wRC+ metric, all while playing his home games in an extreme pitcher's park.
It may turn out that Josh Thole goes the way of Vance Wilson and Jason Phillips before him. But if he can improve his defense, or at least stop his defensive decline, a league average hitter at the Catcher position will have tremendous value to the Mets going forward.
