The Mets caught a lot of Internet snark — from me and others — for stockpiling old backup catchers this offseason in lieu of doing just about anything else to improve their team (insert Jason Bay caveat here).

Now we all owe the Mets an apology, or something, because they lost Chris Coste via waivers to the Nationals yesterday. And Josh Thole will have to endure the start of the Triple-A season without a built-in tutor on the Bisons roster.

Anyway, here we go:

The Major League catchers in April: Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco.

Overview: Given the various ways the Mets’ backstop situation could have played out this offseason, a Barajas/Blanco tandem to open the year isn’t all that awful. It isn’t all that great, mind you, but it’s not all that awful.

The Mets’ much-ballyhooed and widely decried pursuit of Bengie Molina fell apart when the team — smartly — would not offer the aging, impatient catcher more than a one-year contract.

By some fortunate series of circumstances, they wound up with Barajas, a marginally worse hitter than Molina but arguably a much better defender in 2009, plus inarguably a better baserunner and perhaps the person in the organization best-suited for a front-office job.  And for all that, he’ll earn about a quarter of what Molina’s getting.

Behind Barajas, the Mets have Blanco, one of the game’s better backup backstops. Blanco has put up a couple of decent seasons with the bat the last couple of years — respectable-for-a-backup-catcher wRC+s of 87 and 96 in 2008 and 2009, respectively. That’s not entirely likely to last, considering he’s 38 and has a less-than-stellar 67 lifetime figure, but he’ll make up for it with steady defense and badass looks.

Of course, both catchers qualify as stand-ins or contingency plans for prospect Josh Thole, recently ranked fifth in the Mets’ system by Toby Hyde at MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com. Thole, familiar to any Mets fan who braved the final months of the 2009 season, should start 2010 in Buffalo but could crack the big-league roster for good sometime in the middle of the season if he keeps hitting like he did in 2009 and his defense continues to improve.

Hilariously, the loss of Coste means Omir Santos will likely stick with the Mets in Triple-A, meaning Buffalo’s catching situation to start 2010 should look a whole lot like the Major League Mets did to end 2009. That’s novel, I suppose.

The Major League catchers in September: Thole, Barajas and Blanco.

Thole’s on the 40-man roster, so he’ll certainly be called up in September. I imagine he’ll join the club before then, though.

The Mets have some concerns about Blanco’s throwing shoulder, plus he’s 38. Barajas is 34. And since neither seems primed to tear the cover off the ball (with the bat. Blanco looks like he might actually tear covers off baseballs for fun), I would hope that, provided Thole is hitting and his defense has improved, the Mets will be ready to hand him the reins once a convenient opportunity presents itself late in the season.

Should Blanco or Barajas fall victim to injury sooner than that, we’ll enjoy more Extra-Base Omir.

How they stack up: I don’t think Carlos Ruiz will repeat the offensive totals he posted in 2009, but even expecting some regression for the Phillies’ backstop, it’s hard to expect the Mets’ crop of catchers to be anything better than fourth best in the division — better only than the Nats’ group of Ivan Rodriguez and Wilbert Nieves. And should Jesus Flores recover faster than expected from shoulder surgery and Thole not progress, the Mets’ group could be the N.L. East’s worst. But hey, at least they’re not going to be paying Bengie Molina multiple millions of dollars in 2011.

Next up: First basemen, obviously.