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Francisco Alvarez

Francisco Alvarez To Undergo Thumb Surgery In Coming Days

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Francisco Alvarez has been known to be dealing with an thumb injury over the final six weeks of the season that he was capable of playing through but would eventually require him to go under the knife. That eventuality has now arrived, as Anthony DiComo of MLB.com relayed today that Alvarez is set to have surgery to repair the UCL in his right thumb “in the coming days.” 

An exact timeline for Alvarez’s return to regular baseball activities won’t be known until he undergoes the procedure, but the surgery should not be expected to impact his 2026 campaign. The typical timeline for recovery from the procedure is between six and seven weeks; Mike Trout famously underwent the procedure back in early June of 2017 and was back in the lineup when the Angels returned from the All-Star break. A similar timeline would put Alvarez in line to return to his regular offseason activities before the new year, assuming no setbacks.

Once he’s recovered from the procedure, Alvarez will prepare for a 2026 season where he’ll look to build on a brilliant second-half performance. After scuffling badly throughout the first half of the season, Alvarez was optioned to Triple-A in late June. Since being recalled near the end of July, however, he’s been one of the better hitters in baseball with an incredible .276/.360/.561 slash line. That tear came across a sample size of just 41 games and 139 plate appearances, but the hot stretch still inspires some confidence in the longtime top prospect’s bat after his first two years in the big leagues saw him post results that generally hovered around league average.

Once a consensus top-10 prospect in the sport and still just 23 years old, there’s plenty of reason for optimism about Alvarez’s future even as he receives mixed grades for his work behind the plate and has not yet found consistency with the bat. In both areas, Alvarez has shown flashes of greatness at times, such as his aforementioned hot streak in the second half of this year at the plate and his phenomenal defensive numbers in 108 games behind the plate back in 2023. If the youngster manages to find the consistency necessary to offer even a facsimile of that production over a full season, he’ll be on the shortlist for the very best catchers in baseball.

That would surely be a welcome development for the Mets, who relied on the well-regarded defender Luis Torrens behind the plate when Alvarez was in the minors or injured this year. Strong as Torrens is with the glove, he hit just .226/.284/.345 in 92 games this year. That won’t cut it for a primary catcher, especially for a team that figures to risk losing star slugger Pete Alonso in free agency this winter after his recent announcement that he’ll be opting out of his contract this November. Alvarez figures to be a core piece of the club as they look to get back into the postseason next year, and if all goes well it’s not impossible to imagine him joining Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto as a middle-of-the-order threat for the Mets next year.

Mets Option Kodai Senga

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The Mets announced Friday that right-hander Kodai Senga has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Catcher Francisco Alvarez has been reinstated from the injured list. New York also optioned catcher Hayden Senger and activated righty Wander Suero, whom they claimed off waivers yesterday.

Senga’s five-year, $75MM contract stipulated that he needed to consent to being optioned at any point, meaning he gave his approval for the move. It’s obviously a bit surprising at first glance to see a former Rookie of the Year runner-up with a 3.02 ERA optioned to Triple-A, but the Mets have been mulling this move in recent weeks as Senga’s struggles have mounted. He’s pitched to a bleak 6.56 ERA over his past eight starts and lasted only 35 2/3 innings in that time. He’ll bite the bullet and head to the minors as he looks to get back on track before the Mets’ overwhelmingly likely trip to the postseason.

SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the decision to option Senga doesn’t appear to have strained the relationship between player and team. He was included in multiple discussions on the possibility and ultimately “felt respected by the process and consented without issue,” per Martino.

The demotion for Senga coincides with the expected promotion for pitching prospect Brandon Sproat, who’ll reportedly make his major league debut when he starts Sunday’s game against the Reds. He’ll join a youth movement in a rotation that currently includes fellow top prospects Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong. That trio of rookies will join David Peterson, Clay Holmes and the also-struggling Sean Manaea as the Mets’ starters for the time being.

Senga has to spend at least 15 days in the minors and can only be recalled sooner if it’s to replace an injured player on the roster. The Mets surely want him to get multiple Triple-A starts to try to get back on track anyhow, but his results in Syracuse will determine whether he’s back to rejoin the rotation in the final week or so of the regular season — and in the playoffs.

While the recent struggles are notable, it bears mentioning that Senga started the 2025 campaign in excellent fashion. Through his first 13 starts, he posted an exceptional 1.47 earned run average, albeit with less-impressive rate stats (23.9% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate) and some more skeptical grades from metrics like SIERA (4.28) and FIP (3.25). A hamstring strain sent Senga to the injured list in mid-June, and while he tossed four shutout innings in his return to the big leagues just under one month later, his struggles began immediately thereafter.

If Senga were still feeling the effects of that hamstring injury, he’d likely have been placed on the injured list rather than optioned. However, it’s possible that he developed some bad mechanical habits while compensating for that injury. He’s displayed uncharacteristically poor command since the All-Star break, walking 13% of his opponents (plus another two plunked batters) and yielding an average of 2.02 homers per nine innings pitched. Prior to his hamstring injury, he’d walked 10.7% of his career opponents and surrendered just 0.81 homers per nine frames.

There are no real service time or salary implications with Senga’s demotion. He’s guaranteed the full freight of that $75MM sum regardless, and his contract stipulates that he become a free agent at its conclusion, even though he’ll have under six years of major league service time. Sending him to Syracuse doesn’t alter his window of control with the team — it merely provides him a lower-stakes environment to try to get back to his All-Star form.

The other side of today’s notable slate of transactions will see the astonishing return of Alvarez. The Mets’ catcher had been one of baseball’s hottest hitters since mid-July but tore a ligament in his thumb while sliding into second base. That injury occurred less than three weeks ago, and his health troubles were compounded when Alvarez suffered a broken pinky finger upon being hit by a pitch on his minor league rehab assignment.

That damaged thumb ligament will require offseason surgery, but Alvarez will remarkably gut out both of those injuries as he tries to help his club down the stretch. Alvarez, like Senga, was optioned to the minors earlier this summer amid some pronounced struggles but returned with a vengeance, hitting .323/.408/.645 in 71 plate appearances before his injury. He went just 4-for-19 with eight strikeouts in 21 plate appearances during his rehab stint, though he did belt a grand slam in his final minor league game prior to today’s activation.

Francisco Alvarez Suffers Finger Fracture, Still Hopes To Return This Year

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Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez was hit by a pitch on his left pinky finger last night. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the backstop suffered a break in that finger but still hopes to be able to play in the majors later this year.

Alvarez was already in a challenging situation. He suffered a sprain of his right thumb a little over a week ago. Shortly after suffering that injury, it was reported that he will need surgery to correct it at some point. However, the recovery time from that surgery is six to seven weeks, which would carry well into October if he had it now. Alvarez and the Mets decided to delay the procedure until the offseason as he attempts to rest it enough to play through it.

He began that experiment by starting a rehab assignment last night. He doubled in his first plate appearance, grounded out in the second and then was hit by a pitch in the third. He was removed for a pinch runner and it now appears that he suffered a fracture.

Despite the break, Alvarez evidently feels he can get back on the field. Perhaps that is possible but it’s anyone’s guess what kind of production he can muster with a sprained thumb on his right hand and a fractured pinky on the other hand. He could perhaps heal up a bit but there’s only a month left in the regular season.

It perhaps helps that the club has cracked off three straight victories while the Reds have lost three in a row. That gives the Mets a cushion of 4.5 games and greatly increases their chances of making the playoffs. Instead of rushing Alvarez back for a playoff chase, perhaps they can pump the brakes a bit and focus on getting him healthy for the playoffs.

It’s a tough spot but it’s understandable why the Mets and Alvarez are taking this path. He has a .265/.349/.438 batting line and 125 wRC+ this year, despite an early-season slump which got him sent down to the minors for a little while. With him on the shelf, the Mets are left with Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger as their healthy catchers. Torrens is hitting .218/.282/.320 this year while Senger’s line is .180/.227/.197.

The glovework can be debated but Alvarez clearly has the greatest ability to make a difference with his bat. Perhaps the injuries will be too much of an impediment for him to make a short-term impact but there’s little harm in trying. Even if he doesn’t have the thumb surgery until the season is done, he could still be recovered in time to have a normal spring training in preparation for 2026.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Francisco Alvarez To Begin Rehab Assignment

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Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez has resumed swinging a bat and is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment this week, writes MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. It’d be a remarkably quick return for the 23-year-old, who suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb earlier this month. Manager Carlos Mendoza expressed shock when he was sent video of Alvarez already swinging a bat this past Sunday. “When I was looking at it, I was like, ’There’s no way this guy is swinging the bat,'” said Mendoza.

Alvarez will require surgery after the season, but he’ll gut out the injury to the extent that he’s able to tolerate the pain it causes. DiComo notes that the Mets would prefer to use him behind the plate rather than at designated hitter, where Starling Marte has been swinging a blistering hot bat for the past few weeks, but the team won’t rule out the possibility of Alvarez mixing in at DH.

The mere notion of Alvarez returning in short order seemed outlandish at the time of his IL placement and the revelation that he’d require eventual surgery. However, given the production he’d turned in prior to suffering that injury on a slide into second base, it’s not a surprise that the Mets are looking at an aggressive timetable. Alvarez struggled enough early this season to find himself demoted to Triple-A in late June, but he returned a month later and exploded with a .323/.408/.645 batting line in 71 plate appearances before incurring his ill-timed injury.

Certainly, it’d be a lot to expect Alvarez to replicate or even approximate that level of play. That said, there’s a fairly low bar to clear behind the plate — at least from an offensive standpoint. Luis Torrens is hitting just .221/.282/.324 in 241 plate appearances this season, while rookie Hayden Senger has slashed .172/.210/.190 in his first 63 big league plate appearances.

A quick turnaround for Alvarez isn’t the only aggressive move being pondered by the Mets, who are also reportedly mulling a promotion for touted pitching prospect Jonah Tong. The 2022 seventh-rounder could feasibly join fellow rookie and top pitching prospect Nolan McLean in the rotation down the stretch. The Mets have sustained multiple rotation injuries to their starting staff (Frankie Montas, Griffin Canning, Tylor Megill) and are scrambling to hold onto a Wild Card spot in the National League. New York is 15-19 since the All-Star break and just 8-14 in August.

The Mets entered the All-Star break in possession of the second Wild Card spot and just a half game behind the Phillies in the NL East. They’re now six games behind Philadelphia in the division and 3.5 games behind San Diego for the second Wild Card spot. The Mets are still 2.5 games up on the Reds for that final spot, but New York has the slightly tougher schedule the rest of the way — including a pivotal three-game set in Cincinnati from Sept. 5-7. The Mets have just a .431 winning percentage on the road, whereas the Reds have won at a .554 clip at home.

Francisco Alvarez Could Play Through Thumb Injury But Will Require Surgery Eventually

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The Mets placed catcher Francisco Alvarez on the 10-day injured list earlier today with a right thumb UCL sprain, announcing that he will be evaluated again in 10 to 14 days. Manager Carlos Mendoza later provided more information to reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Alvarez will require surgery at some point but the Mets are going to see if he can play through it before going under the knife. If he can’t play through it a few weeks from now, he could be done for the year.

It seems that the Mets and Alvarez are in a weird limbo area due to the calendar. Andy Martino of SNY relays that the typical recovery time for this thumb surgery is six to seven weeks. If he were to have it done now, it would essentially end his season.

The Mets are battling for a playoff spot and will instead see if Alvarez can be a factor for them later in the year. It might not work out but it doesn’t appear there’s a serious downside. Even if the surgery is delayed until the offseason, Alvarez should have time to recover for a normal offseason and be ready for spring training.

Alvarez struggled earlier this year and got optioned down to the minors for a spell. Since coming back up, he has been on a tear. His recent hot streak has brought his season-long line up to .265/.349/.438, which translates to a 126 wRC+.

As Alvarez has been hot, the club has been cold. The Mets have been sliding in the standings and their 66-58 record has them barely hanging onto a playoff spot, just one game up on the Reds. If there’s a chance of getting Alvarez back in the lineup for a few weeks, it’s understandable that they would try, especially when considering the alternatives. Luis Torrens is hitting .214/.280/.301 this year while Hayden Senger has a .174/.208/.196 line.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Mets Place Francisco Alvarez On Injured List

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2:45pm: Alvarez is now officially on the IL due to a right thumb sprain with Senger recalled. The Mets say Alvarez will be further evaluated in 10-14 days.

11:13am: The Mets will place catcher Francisco Alvarez on the injured list today due to his right thumb injury, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. An exact diagnosis isn’t clear just yet, but Alvarez exited Sunday’s game early after injuring his hand on a slide into second base. Manager Carlos Mendoza noted that night that Alvarez was headed for an MRI to evaluate the extent of the injury (link via The Athletic’s Tim Britton).

Losing Alvarez for any period of time is a crushing blow to a flailing Mets club that has come out of the All-Star break with an 11-16 record — including just a 4-11 mark in August. The 23-year-old backstop has been the team’s hottest hitter after a monthlong reset in Triple-A. He’s come to the plate 71 times since being recalled on July 21 and turned in a brilliant .323/.406/.645 batting line (193 wRC+) with four homers, six doubles and a triple.

With Alvarez out for at least the next nine days — his stint can be backdated to Monday — the Mets will have to lean on backup Luis Torrens and rookie Hayden Senger behind the dish. It’s a notable offensive downgrade, with Torrens hitting just .214/.280/.301 in 225 plate appearances this season and Senger carrying a .174/.208/.196 slash in 49 plate appearances as a 28-year-old rookie.

Alvarez missed significant time in 2023 with a thumb injury, though that was due to a ligament tear in his other (left) thumb. He’s also missed time due to a fractured hamate in his left wrist. While it’s perhaps the smallest of silver linings that this latest injury didn’t occur in the same hand that’s already caused him to miss significant action on two separate occasions, his absence will be prominently felt.

Mets Recall Francisco Alvarez, Outright Richard Lovelady

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported claimed of right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Yankees. Righty Dedniel Núñez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot for Garcia. It was recently reported that Núñez will require Tommy John surgery. The Mets will need to open an active roster spot for Garcia once he reports to the club. The Mets also recalled catcher Francisco Alvarez and optioned fellow backstop Hayden Senger. Additionally, left-hander Richard Lovelady has been sent outright to Triple-A Syracuse. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. He has the right to elect free agency though it’s not yet clear if he has done so.

Alvarez got out to a bit of a slow start this year. The Mets optioned him to Triple-A about a month ago, as he was sitting on a .236/.319/.333 slash line at that time. He had hit just three home runs, after having missed the first month of the season due to a hamate fracture.

The optional assignment has seemingly lit a fire under him. He has 12 home runs in 29 games since being sent down, leading to a gargantuan .255/.352/.623 batting line for Syracuse. Now that he’s in a groove, the Mets have called him up and will see if he can carry that over at the major league level.

While the optional assignment ended up being relatively brief, it will be costly for Alvarez. He came into this year with two years and six days of service time, putting him on track for free agency after 2028. By spending a month in the minors, he won’t be able to push his service clock to the three-year line in 2025. That means the Mets have gained an extra year of club control over Alvarez, pushing his path to free agency until after 2029. He was going to reach free agency after his age-26 season but that will now be pushed until after his age-27 season. He is on track to qualify for arbitration this winter as a Super Two player, giving him four passes through arb instead of the usual three, but the delayed free agency is a hit to his career earning power.

As for Lovelady, he’s a veteran lefty who is out of options, which has led to him being on the fringes of a few rosters this year. He started the year with the Blue Jays but was designated for assignment after two appearances. He elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Twins, pitched well at Triple-A for a couple of months and then opted out of that deal. He has bounced on and off the Mets roster since then, twice getting added and then cut after a brief stint in both cases.

For the whole season, Lovelady has a 10.80 earned run average in 8 1/3 innings, though mostly due to allowing four earned runs in his second outing of the year. During his time in the Twins’ system, he tossed 20 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.31 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 60.4% ground ball rate. Every other time he has cleared waivers this year, he has elected free agency, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he does so again in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Mets Option Francisco Alvarez

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The Mets announced today that they’ve optioned catcher Francisco Alvarez to Triple-A. Catcher Hayden Senger was called up to take Alvarez’s spot on the active roster.

Alvarez, 23, is in the midst of his fourth MLB season. He played just five games in the majors in 2022, however, and entered the 2023 campaign a consensus top-10 prospect in the entire sport. He hit a respectable .209/.284/.437 (97 wRC+) with 25 home runs in 123 games during that rookie campaign while grading out as one of the sport’s best defensive catchers. It was a strong enough showing to make Alvarez a lock to serve as the Mets’ regular catcher in 2024, but was sidelined by a hand injury that ultimately required him to undergo surgery on his thumb and miss nearly two months. Alvarez was able to hit a respectable .237/.307/.403 (102 wRC+) last year, roughly league average production despite a sharp decline in power output.

While Alvarez’s overall offensive line was on par with expectations in 2024, there were still reasons for concern. His once-elite defense was just average in 2024 as his blocking ability went from average to the second percentile among qualifying catchers per Statcast. His pitch framing numbers also slipped slightly, though they still remained elite. In addition to the step back defensively, Alvarez’s power outage last year led underlying metrics to judge his performance at the plate more harshly last year; his xwOBA dropped from .305 in 2023 to just .289 in 2024 despite his wOBA remaining steady at .310 across both seasons.

2025 started out on a familiarly tough note for Alvarez, as he missed the start of the season due to surgery on his left hand—this time to repair a fractured hamate bone. Since making his season debut on April 25, Alvarez has hit just .236/.319/.333 with a wRC+ of 91. That’s not terrible for the standards of the catcher position, but it’s still a far cry from the roughly league average production he had posted for his career entering this year. He’s also hitting for even less power than last year, with just three home runs and three doubles in 35 games. An 8.2% barrel rate suggests that might be due to some lackluster batted ball luck, but further steps backward defensively aren’t as easy to dismiss.

Alvarez has remained below average as a blocker behind the plate after last year’s rough showing, and he’s now become one of the worst framing catchers in the league after that was his strong suit in his career prior to this season. While he’s stayed somewhat valuable by throwing out opposing base runners at an elite rate, Alvarez has fallen off to the point of becoming an average to below average catcher overall based on his numbers this year. Between his offense trending downward and his uncharacteristically lackluster defense behind the plate, the Mets clearly felt it was time to send him to the minors for a reset.

It’s a sign of urgency for a club that recently lost seven consecutive games before snapping that losing streak with a win over the Phillies last night. The Mets are in a statistical tie with Philadelphia for the NL East title at the moment, which puts a premium on wins as they look to rebuild their lead in the division and put the club’s front office in position to buy more aggressively at the trade deadline this summer. While the best version of the Mets involves Alvarez in the lineup on a regular basis, though Luis Torrens has shown himself to be deserving of a regular role in the short-term with strong defensive grades and an 89 wRC+ that’s not too far off of Alvarez’s own figure this year.

In the short term, it seems Senger will be tasked with backing up Torrens. The 28-year-old made his MLB debut earlier this year and has hit .179/.207/.214 (18 wRC+) in 29 plate appearances across 13 games in the majors. Longer term, there’s little question that Alvarez will return to the majors with the club and rejoin Torrens as part of the club’s catching tandem. The Athletic’s Will Sammon reports that the Mets are satisfied with their catching tandem at this point and that they aren’t expected to enter trade season in the market for catching help.

Jed Hoyer: Cubs Planning To Look For Pitching At Deadline

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Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer joined the New York Post’s Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman for an interview on the latest edition of The Show podcast (YouTube link), and discussed a number of topics about both his team and baseball at large.  Though we’re still several weeks away from the July 31 trade deadline, Hoyer did address his first-place team’s likeliest need.

“I think we’re going to be looking for pitching, both rotation and in the bullpen,” Hoyer said.  “I don’t think that’s a secret.  That’s not a knock on the guys we have.  But I think in today’s game, you’ve got to keep building depth.”

Justin Steele pitched in just four games before his season was prematurely ended by a UCL revision surgery, thus robbing Wrigleyville of one of its top arms for almost the entirety of the 2025 campaign.  Javier Assad hasn’t pitched at all this season due to a pair of oblique injuries, and since he only started playing catch a couple of weeks ago, it would seem that a return prior to the All-Star break might not be in the cards.  Shota Imanaga hasn’t pitched since May 4 due to a hamstring strain, and Hoyer said “the hope is” Imanaga will be able to return to the rotation before the end of June.

Without their two top pitchers and another hurler in Assad that expected to at least compete for a back-end rotation job, Chicago has done well to hold its own on the rotation front even with such a depleted set of starters.  Hoyer made a point of praising his in-house starters and his team’s defense for helping the run-prevention efforts, yet bringing at least one starting pitcher into the fold seems like a logical way to reinforce the roster heading into the pennant drive.

As one might expect, Hoyer didn’t share any hints about how big of a splash the Cubs are looking to make at the deadline, and still couched his comments within the framework of “if” the front office chose to make any additions by July 31.  It could be that Hoyer may not know the answer to such questions himself at the moment, as the Cubs’ trade pursuits may hinge on Imanaga’s assumed healthy status by July 31, Assad’s progress, or any other injuries or pitchers who are under- or overachieving in the coming weeks.

Hoyer also said that Porter Hodge is expected to return from his own oblique injury before June is out, which will bring another high-leverage candidate back to help the relief corps.  As Hoyer put it, however, bullpens are “always a work in progress…I don’t think you ever get to a point of feeling comfortable or feeling like it’s a set thing.”  With this in mind, the pen will be a focus both on July 31, and “we’ll keep on making small transactions [before the deadline] as well to get marginally better.”

On the flip side of the equation, Hoyer doesn’t see the Cubs doing much to alter its impressive core of position players on the trade front.  The Cubs have been one of baseball’s best hitting teams, with the powerful offense helping make up for any of the pitching staff’s shortcomings.

“Barring injury, there are probably some small things [we’ll consider] on the offensive side, but really I think that our position-playing group has been really good….The depth we have, top to bottom, I think we’re getting production both offensively and defensively from all our spots.  That’s made a huge difference.  As I think about it, pitching is the likely direction we would take if we were adding [at the deadline],” Hoyer said.

In terms of other topics, Hoyer said he wouldn’t comment publicly on either the existence of any extensions talks between the Cubs and Kyle Tucker, or even any talks between himself and the team on a new deal, as Hoyer’s current contract is up after the 2025 season.  Hoyer repeated past comments about how he hoped Tucker would stay in Chicago over the long term, and how much he has enjoyed his own 14-season tenure in the organization as first a general manager and then the head of the baseball operations department.

Hoyer did go into a little more detail about what might now be the most impactful trade of his five-year run as PBO — the July 2021 deadline deal that brought Pete Crow-Armstrong to the then-rebuilding Cubs from the Mets for Javier Baez, Trevor Williams, and some cash considerations.  New York took Crow-Armstrong 19th overall in the 2020 draft so it wasn’t as if PCA was an unknown quantity, yet a shoulder surgery limited the outfielder to only six games in his first pro season.

The Mets weren’t willing to discuss moving more highly-touted prospects at the time, as Hoyer said such players as Francisco Alvarez, Matt Allan, and Brett Baty were “off the table” in trade talks.  Mark Vientos “was a guy that was kind of discussed a little bit but it was clear they didn’t want to part with him,” Hoyer noted, so discussions turned towards elsewhere on New York’s minor league depth chart.

Crow-Armstrong “was sort of out of sight, out of mind, I believe,” Hoyer said.  “Looking back, I think his injury didn’t allow him to perform, and therefore I think he became a guy [the Mets] were willing to trade in that deal.  So I think it was good fortune for us that they did take some really good players off the table, and most of those guys are helping the Mets right now, but Pete’s injury allowed that to happen and it worked out really well for us.”

While Hoyer felt Crow-Armstrong was going to improve as a hitter during his second full Major League season, even the executive admitted to being a little surprised at the extent of the breakout.  PCA has been one of the very best all-around players in the sport, delivering 17 homers, 21 stolen bases, and a .277/.313/.559 slash line over 275 plate appearances while also playing Gold Glove-level defense in center field.

Mets Expect To Activate Francisco Alvarez, Jeff McNeil On Friday

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The Mets are planning to reinstate catcher Francisco Alvarez and infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil from the 10-day injured list on Friday, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters (video link via SNY). Both players will be making their 2025 debuts. Each will play in one final rehab game today.

Alvarez, 23, has appeared in nine rehab games thus far and taken 40 plate appearances. He’s out to a middling start, but the nature of his injury — a fractured hamate bone that required surgery — has a tendency to dull offensive performance early on when hitters return. The slugging backstop has been the Mets’ primary catcher over the past two seasons, hitting a combined .222/.294/.422 with 36 home runs in 765 plate appearances. Alvarez has also emerged as a top-tier pitch framer, though his blocking and throwing abilities lag behind.

So far in 2025, the Mets have gone with journeyman Luis Torrens as their starter and homegrown 28-year-old Hayden Senger as their backup. Torrens hit quite well through his first 11 games but has fallen into a deep slump. The 28-year-old is just 3-for-27 over his past nine games, making Alvarez’s expected return all the more timely. It’s likely that Torrens will continue on as the backup in order to preserve catching depth; he’s out of minor league options, whereas Senger has a full slate of option years left and can be sent directly to Triple-A Syracuse without first needing to clear waivers.

McNeil has been out all year due to an oblique strain. The Mets have gotten him some looks in center field during this rehab stint, although he’s not likely to play the position regularly. Still, with Jose Siri sidelined for upwards of 10 weeks due to a fracture in his leg, the Mets took advantage of McNeil’s rehab stint and versatile defensive profile to get him a start in center.

In all likelihood, McNeil will return and see time at second base, at designated hitter and perhaps in an outfield corner. The Mets opened the year with Luisangel Acuña and Brett Baty sharing time at second base. Acuña has handled things well, hitting .275/.351/.373 and contributing solid glovework.

Baty, after a torrid spring performance, had a brutal two-week stretch to begin the season but has begun to turn things around. The 25-year-old former first rounder crushed a second-deck homer off Zack Wheeler in the Mets’ currently ongoing game against the Phillies and entered play today on a .280/.357/.440 heater over his past eight contests. He’s still hitting just .204/.246/.354, but it’ll take some time to recover from the .111/.111/.148 line he totaled through his first 27 trips to the plate.

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