The Mets now not have a backlog on the backstop with James McCann having been traded to the Baltimore Orioles, however they do have two catchers below contract for the subsequent two years.
What does that imply for prime prospect Francisco Alvarez?
Let’s break down the Mets’ catching state of affairs for 2023 and 2024.
The Mets signed Omar Narvaez to a one-year contract with a participant possibility for 2024 in December, value $15 million assured. An All-Star in 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers, the 30-year-old Venezuelan is a good hitter and hits from the left aspect, so the Mets can cut up his begins with Tomas Nido.
Nido signed a two-year, $3.7 million contract final week. This takes him by his final two arbitration years and supplies the membership with an inexpensive catcher at a set price. The 28-year-old Puerto Rican is an effective hitter from the proper aspect however his protection and framing have turn out to be his calling playing cards.
Defensive metrics present Nido is a wonderful framer, one thing he realized from former Mets’ catcher Travis d’Arnaud, and he has an ideal relationship with a number of the crew’s most necessary arms.
Nido is coming off of his finest season, having caught a career-high 98 video games. He doesn’t have a ton of pop however he did hit 15 doubles final season and drove in 28 runs.
But Alvarez does have pop in his bat. If all goes in keeping with plan, Alvarez might be one of many uncommon power-hitting catchers and the Mets’ finest one since Mike Piazza.
In 112 video games between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022, Alvarez hit 27 dwelling runs and posted a .885 OPS. He hit left-handed pitching particularly arduous, posting a .908 OPS in Binghamton with three dwelling runs.
The Mets referred to as him up late in September for a collection in Atlanta that determined the division. They wanted pop from the left aspect. But they didn’t get it, going 0-for-8 with three strikeouts. You in all probability know what occurred from there — the Mets completed second within the NL East after which misplaced in an NL Wild Card collection to the San Diego Padres.
But in between these two collection, he did present some flashes of that uncooked energy. He hit his first huge league dwelling run and he obtained his cash’s value with a monster, 439-footer off of Washington Nationals right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. He later doubled off of righty Erasmo Ramirez.
There was some speak of utilizing Alvarez primarily as a DH subsequent season whereas he develops his catching sport on the Major League stage. The Mets shuffled some personnel this winter to have the ability to have Glenn Sherlock work with Alvarez. A longtime catching coordinator who first got here to the Mets in 2017 to work with d’Arnaud, Sherlock was Buck Showalter’s bench coach final season.
The Mets may go that route and use him and Tommy Pham in opposition to left-handed pitching if Darin Ruf finally ends up being out of the equation.
Clearly, Alvarez is a precedence. But meaning he could begin the season in Triple-A.
The final thing the Mets wish to do is rush one of many prime prospects in baseball. He performs a premium place and the membership desires to make sure he’s able to working with their pitching workers they usually don’t need him overwhelmed on the plate.
The Mets have some choices. His contract may make him a sexy commerce candidate. Whether or not he performs an enormous position for the large membership this season, Alvarez might be part of the Mets’ future and Nido provides them some insurance coverage till he’s prepared. The growth of Alvarez might be one of many key storylines to observe in spring coaching and all through the early a part of the 2023 season.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com