Travis Emmanuel d'Arnaud (born February 10, 1989) is an American professional baseball catcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Atlanta Braves. He made his MLB debut in 2013 with the Mets. D'Arnaud won a Silver Slugger Award in 2020 and was a member of the 2021 World Series champions with the Braves. He was an All-Star in 2022.
D'Arnaud was born on February 10, 1989, in Long Beach, California. A 2017 article in the Orlando Sentinel article lists numerous family members involved in music: His mother Marita runs an after-school performing-arts center in Long Beach, his father plays trumpet, piano, and trombone, two of his uncles are pianists, and one cousin an electropop musician, among others involved in the field. In addition to music, d'Arnaud described his Long Beach upbringing as having a "huge baseball community". He was a childhood fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB), and modeled his baseball career after Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza.
As children, d'Arnaud and his older brother Chase would discuss "how cool that would be if we played with each other or against each other in the big leagues". (Chase went on to spend several years in the big leagues, and the two faced each other several times in their respective careers.) Rather than follow Chase into playing for Los Alamitos High School, d'Arnaud chose to attend Lakewood High School, the rivals of Los Alamitos. D'Arnaud began to draw the attention of scouts as a high school baseball player in 2007, and was invited to work out with the Toronto Blue Jays. D'Arnaud graduated in 2007, and was inducted into the Lakewood Youth Hall of Fame as a Co-Athlete of the Year in 2008.
D'Arnaud had committed to play college baseball for the Pepperdine Waves of Pepperdine University after high school, the same school for which his brother played, but was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the supplemental first round of the 2007 Major League Baseball draft, the 37th overall pick. He chose to void his college commitment, and signed a minor league contract for $832,500.
In 2007, d'Arnaud started his professional career with the Philadelphia Phillies' Rookie League affiliate, the Gulf Coast League Phillies. He played 41 games in the GCL and put together a .241 batting average and a .626 OPS.
In 2008, d'Arnaud began the season with the Phillies' Low–A affiliate, the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York–Penn League. He played 48 games in the NYPL, hitting .309 with an OPS of .833, and was selected for the mid-season All-Star game. From there he was promoted to the Single-A Lakewood BlueClaws. Between the two teams, he batted .305/.367/.464, while on defense in 58 games he committed 10 errors and was charged with 16 passed balls.
D'Arnaud played the entire 2009 season with the BlueClaws. In 126 games, he batted, .255 and struck 13 home runs, posting an OPS of .738. He was once again selected for the All-Star game, this time in the South Atlantic League. The BlueClaws went on to win the 2009 South Atlantic League championship.
On December 16, 2009, d'Arnaud was sent from the Phillies to the Toronto Blue Jays organization in a ten-player trade. The Phillies received Roy Halladay, along with $6 million from the Blue Jays. Toronto received d'Arnaud, Kyle Drabek, and Michael Taylor, who they later flipped to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Wallace. D'Arnaud played the entire 2010 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Blue Jays' High-A affiliate in the Florida State League. Despite suffering from back problems and playing in a higher league, d'Arnaud put up comparable numbers to his 2009 campaign, as he batted .259, struck 6 HRs, and posted an OPS of .726, over 71 games. For the week of April 19, d'Arnaud was named FSL Player of the Week and was selected to participate in the midsummer Home Run Derby. He was named a Mid-Season and Post-Season All-Star.
In 2011, d'Arnaud played the entire 2011 season in the Eastern League, with the Blue Jays Double-A affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Over his first three seasons in the minors, d'Arnaud had steadily improved his defense, but 2011 was the year in which he made vast improvements to all aspects of his offensive ability. He finished the season with a .311 batting average and an OBP of .371 in 114 games. He saw another great spike in power, hitting 21 home runs with a slugging percentage of .542 and 33 doubles. On July 13, d'Arnaud was named to the Eastern League's Mid-Season All-Star team. He also made the post-season team on August 25, going to his sixth All-Star game in total. The following day, on August 26, d'Arnaud was named the EL's Most Valuable Player.
On September 16, the Toronto Blue Jays named d'Arnaud as one of the recipients of the R. Howard Webster award, an award given to the best player at each level of the Blue Jays minor league farm system. The next day, d'Arnaud went on to win his second minor league championship ring, as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats defeated the Reading Phillies 3 games to 1 in the semi-finals and then defeated the Richmond Flying Squirrels 3 games to 1 in the final series of the Eastern League championship.
Baseball America named d'Arnaud as the Best Defensive Catcher in the Eastern League for the 2011 season. They also named him the #2 prospect in the EL, behind highly touted outfield prospect Bryce Harper and in front of teammate Anthony Gose. D'Arnaud was also named the starting catcher for the Double-A level in Baseball America's honorary "classifications" All-Star team.
On September 15, USA Baseball announced that d'Arnaud had been selected for its 25-man roster to play in the IBAF's 2011 Baseball World Cup.
On June 21, d'Arnaud was named to appear in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game.
On December 17, 2012, the Blue Jays traded d'Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, John Buck, and Wuilmer Becerra to the New York Mets for R. A. Dickey, Josh Thole, and Mike Nickeas.
The Mets optioned d'Arnaud to Triple-A Las Vegas 51s on March 24, 2013. He suffered a non-displaced fracture on his left foot during a game on April 17. D'Arnaud was cleared to begin a rehab assignment on June 3; however, he recovered more slowly than originally expected, having been limited to running in a rehab pool as of June 21, while awaiting clearance for land-based running. On July 24, d'Arnaud played in his first rehab game with the GCL Mets, and went 1–3 at the plate. He returned to the Las Vegas 51s on August 9.
The Mets called up d'Arnaud for the first time on August 17, when John Buck was placed on the paternity list. In his first major league plate appearance, d'Arnaud drew a four-pitch walk from San Diego starter Edinson Vólquez. He finished the game 0–2 with two walks. D'Arnaud got his first major league hit on August 20 against Atlanta Braves pitcher Luis Ayala in the 8th inning. He hit his first Major League home run on August 25, a two-run shot off Detroit Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello. The home run earned d'Arnaud a curtain call from the Mets fans.
D'Arnaud finished the season appearing in 31 games batting .202 in 99 at-bats in 112 plate appearances with 20 hits, one home run, five RBIs, 12 walks, four runs scored, and 21 strikeouts.
On May 13, d'Arnaud suffered the third concussion of his professional career, when he was hit by Alfonso Soriano's backswing. On June 8, d'Arnaud was optioned to AAA Las Vegas, having posted a .180 batting average in the major leagues. His spot was taken by Taylor Teagarden. In the 15 games after his demotion, he hit .436 with six home runs. On June 24, d'Arnaud was called back up to the Mets and resumed his role as starting catcher, after Teagarden was placed on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain. On the same day, d'Arnaud hit a three-run home run off Scott Kazmir of the Oakland Athletics with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, increasing the Mets' lead to 7-1, in a game they went on to win by a score of 10-1. It was the only hit for d'Arnaud in 4 at-bats as he struck out twice. For the remainder of the season, d'Arnaud batted .272 with 10 home runs.