The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Michael Pérez. He will take the roster spot of fellow backstop Tomás Nido who has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 7, due to dry eye syndrome. Right-hander Elieser Hernández was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Pérez. Tim Healey of Newsday previously reported that Pérez was with the club in Cincinnati while Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported on Nido’s IL placement.
The Mets will now be without both of their Opening Day catchers, as Omar Narváez landed on the IL after just five games due to a significant calf strain and Nido now joins him on the shelf. The injury to Narváez opened playing time for prospect Francisco Álvarez but now Nido’s absence will require the club to reach into its depth yet again.
Pérez, 30, was acquired from the Pirates in a trade last July but was outrighted by the club in October. He became a free agent in the winter but rejoined the Mets on a minor league deal and has been playing in Triple-A so far this year. In 19 games for Syracuse, he’s hit just .153/.261/.254, but with encouraging peripherals. He’s walked at a strong 13% clip and struck out in just 17.4% of his plate appearances, with that paltry batting line being weighed down by a .152 batting average on balls in play.
He’s seen part-time action in the big leagues in each of the five previous seasons, suiting up for the Rays, Pirates and Mets. He owns a career batting line of .174/.244/.301 over 591 plate appearances in the big leagues. On the defensive side of things, his framing is considered subpar but he’s been worth four Defensive Runs Saved in his career and grades out well on Statcast’s new caught stealing above average metric. He’ll figures to serve as the backup to Álvarez at least until one of Narváez or Nido get back. He still has an option year remaining and could potentially be sent back to Syracuse easily when that time comes.
As for Nido, he’s out to a terrible start this year, hitting just .118/.148/.118. Perhaps this vision issue provides some explanation for why he’s so far off his career line of .213/.250/.309. It doesn’t seem to be especially serious, as manager Buck Showalter expects him to be fine in three or four days, per Healey.
As for Hernández, he’s been on the injured list all year so far due to a right shoulder strain. He doesn’t seem especially close to a return, given that he hasn’t even begun a rehab assignment. The 60-day count begins from his initial IL placement, meaning he’ll be eligible to return in a few weeks if he’s healthy.
Dry eye syndrome?? How can you have dry eye syndrome when you’re crying about the Mets pitching staff daily?
Lol Mets after watching Tomas Nido at bats, there isn’t a dry eye in the House.
LolRobrock
):^)
This somewhat explains Sanchez. Perez will be DFA’d after this quick visit
Why call up Perez when they got Gary Sanchez? I dont get it
He’s been with the organization longer
@Bill M yeah that shouldnt matter at all. If the Phillies released JT Realmuto, Mets sign him to a minor league deal, then call up Michael Perez, that would be the most stupid thing they could do just because Perez was in the org longer. Im not saying Sanchez is JT Realmuto but hitting wise, Perez is barely single A level
You use Realmuto as an example & then you say he’s not like Sanchez. Which is it? The point is to compare Perez to Sanchez and they both equally suck but they went with Perez because he’s been with the organization longer and therefore knows the staff better.
if Realmuto is signing a minor league deal i would say he probably needs to be in the minors because something is either really wrong physically that everyone passed on him and he could only get a minor league deal especially when a major league deal would be prorated portion of league minimum. That or mentally. something is very wrong .. who knows what he will do.
What a disaster of a season. Gonna be in last place come Monday. That’s what the highest payroll in history gets you in 2023.
Can nido stay on the DL permantly?
Was thinking the same
No reason to fake an injury with Nido just DFA his sorry ass he brings no value at the plate and has been worse defensively than 20 year old Álvarez. Perez and Gary Sanchez are better options for a backup until Narvaez is healthy Nido should never play another game for the Mets.
He’s got a contract for 2024 as well (signed a two-year deal) so they’d be eating quite a bit of future salary by DFA’ing him.
its 2 million the fact they let go of Cano with 24 million and at 350+ million payroll doesnt make me think that future money is a factor in this.. If my math is correct we are paying out more this year to players not on the team than the Oakland A’s current 26 man payroll.
yeah the 2 million doesn’t matter they just gave Sanchez 1.2 mil if he makes the team if you aren’t performing the Mets won’t be afraid to cut bait. if they DFA him and he gets claimed they’re off the hook for the contract anyways, otherwise he’d just be sent to the minors to work on his hitting. i still think he gets DFAd at some point this year,
True. But in what universe does anything the Oakland A’s do make any sense?
“dry eye syndrome.”
Is this the first ever dry eye injury to a major league baseball player?
As for Nido, he’s 29, and an MLBer’s reflexes tend to peak in his early 20s. He was probably getting by as a hitter (barely) on what’s known as “young player’s skills.” Now that those are eroding, steeply, he looks done. He can’t even hit the ball hard enough and in the air to get it out of the infield, or past a diving MI when he slaps it on the ground. Well–he’ll always have the high of 2020 on his resume. No one can take those 26 PA away from you, Tomas!
Nido was smart to let the Mets buy out his 2024 arb year. Even if he’s spent it all to date, that $2.1m in 2024 should set him up for a long, pleasant, if quiet retirement.
While he has the time, tell Nido to go see the musical “Come from Away” on Broadway. When I saw it, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Thank you, people of Gander.
Or go see the musical “Rent”.
It’s the lease you can do.
):30
(Milk-spit. Through the nose)
All that coun to beat out the Washedup Nationals.
Thoughts?
I’m not sure how the NL East will turn out for the rest of the season because we’re just under a quarter of the season through, but the potential for the Mets don’t look good so far. It isn’t just their slow start. It’s the schedule they’ve had so far while having these struggles. Yes, I know my Marlins are one of them, but there were certain factors to those games I’ll mention afterward. However, with the Mets, they’ve had a pretty light schedule to start the season to where they probably should’ve easily been right there neck-and-neck with the Braves right now, but their flaws are showing. Also, a big blow that they had, and I can attest this as a Marlins fan after our last two seasons, is the loss of their Closer. The Mets look even more flawed than when they started Spring Training. Can they turn it around? Of course any team in the NL East can play well the rest of the way. But when you struggle against the weaker part of your schedule, it doesn’t look good for the potential rest of the season. Now, as I mentioned the Marlins have been part of 7 of these Mets games so far, and the Mets beat them period. However, based on observation, the Mets didn’t look good against them. The Marlins looked far worse against the Mets, and also the Braves, than they have against the other teams they’ve faced. And to note, the Marlins have played a pretty tough schedule so far. To see the difference, the Marlins are 3-11 against the Mets and Braves, while being 16-8 against the other teams they’ve faced. Now one thing I’ll point out as to why I say that both the Mets and Marlins didn’t look good in their two series. While the Mets weren’t impressive, the Marlins looked like their young players (mainly pitchers) were starstruck when playing both the Mets and Braves, and didn’t trust their stuff. The pitchers were not as aggressive against the Braves and Mets hitters like they’ve been against the other teams. The young hitters (except for Jazz) also looked a bit starstruck. This is a part of developing teams, but it’s what I saw in those series. On one hand, I will say that the Marlins young players need to get past that in order to take the next steps. On the other hand, related to the Mets potential this season, a team can’t depend on getting victories based on the opponent playing poorly. At some point, you have to beat teams who are playing as well as they can – essentially imposing your will on lesser opponents…assuming that they are lesser opponents. The Mets haven’t done that from what I’ve seen. The Braves do that…and all of us in the NL East have seen the Braves do that for the last few years.
Of course, a lot of us are also looking at the age situation with the Mets will lead to unpredictable declines and injuries.
This is just my observation so far. Still early though for all of these teams. However, if the Braves don’t miss a beat, and things continue as they are with the other NL East teams, in a couple of weeks we’ll see the Braves pulling completely away from the pack to where the race of for trying to grab one of the Wild Card spots. With that, where everyone assumed that it would be a cakewalk for the Mets and Phillies, it’s looking like the Marlins are going to be a major x-factor as they continue to roam around .500 as it looks like they have fixed their bullpen problems of the last two years. And the Nats are actually playing a bit better than being a doormat. And it won’t get easier as older teams like the Mets historically slow down as the season moves forward. Then you also have the factor of the Nats getting better as the season goes along, and if the Marlins feel they are in contention at the trade deadline, they’re going to be buyers, which makes them tougher after that deadline….even if it doesn’t land them a Playoff spot.
Both the Mets & Yanks seem to have assembled great Old Timers’ Day line-ups. What makes the Astros & Dodgers so daunting is they have managed to have sustainable success by getting younger. Honestly, that’s not new. For some reason, teams seem to forget about that. Or they’re just lousy at drafting and development.
Not everyone can be Branch Rickey.
You were doing good until you mention Branch Rickey.
Yes, drafting and development are key, even with big payroll teams. Spending a lot of money is good to fill voids, and occasionally land that generational player that is a free agent at a younger age, but building teams off of money almost never works. Gotta have the foundation in place first – a foundation that is usually built through the draft and development. People don’t realize that the last two multi-championship dynasties, the Yankees and Giants, built their foundations from drafting and player development. Yankees did it with Jeter, Pettite, Bernie Williams, Posada, Mariano, etc. Giants did it with Posey, Lincecum, Cain, MadBum, Panda, Crawford, Brian Wilson, Romo, etc. Astros, who are closing in on that 3+ championship status have done the same. Braves and Rays are great this year from doing the same.
Not sure what all of that had to do with my mentioning Branch Rickey. Not sure I care, either.
I was agreeing with you about the rest and was actually supporting what you said with my addition into the discussion.
Sorry I didn’t clarify that.
As for Rickey, he was good at developing, but it’s always best to avoid his name in those discussions because of the way his career came to an end.
Branch Rickey invented the farm system as we know it. He took two different moribund franchises and turned them into jewels. And he is arguably the greatest judge of young talent baseball has yet seen.
I’m not arguing that. But you can’t deny that he had a bad ending to his career that overshadowed all that he did over his full body of work in his career and life.