The Mets announced that catcher Francisco Alvarez has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list, with fellow backstop Tomás Nido designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Alvarez tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb in April and went under the knife April 23. The club announced an expected absence of six to eight weeks and he has now returned right in the middle of that window.
He hit 25 homers for the Mets last year while also receiving strong grades for his glovework, cementing himself as the club’s franchise backstop since he was just 21 years old last year. He was looking to continue establishing himself in that role here in 2024, though the injury put that on hold for a bit. Now that he has healed up, that plan can get back on track.
While Alvarez was out, the Mets played a bit of musical chairs at the catcher position. Nido, Omar Narváez and Luis Torrens all got some playing time, while Joe Hudson was recently added to the roster and brought to London as an emergency depth option, though he’s now on optional assignment.
Nido was added to the roster when Alvarez went down and slashed .229/.261/.361, decent enough production given his reputation as a glove-first backup type. Narváez hit a dismal .154/.191/.185 and was released last week.
When Narváez was cut from the roster, the Mets acquired Torrens from the Yankees. Torrens has generally been considered more of a bat-first catcher and was hitting .279/.339/.468 in Triple-A at the time the Mets traded for him. In six games since that deal, he has hit two home runs and drawn walks at an 11.1% pace. His .313/.389/.750 batting line will surely regress somewhat, but it seems the Mets are going to roll with him as the backup instead of Nido. If Torrens last on the roster all year, he can be controlled for two more seasons via arbitration.
The Mets will now have a week to trade Nido or pass him through waivers. He is making $2.1MM this year as part of the two-year deal he signed with the Mets going into 2023. The Mets passed him through waivers last summer, just before he got to five years of service time. That likely wasn’t a coincidence, as getting to the five-year mark would have given him the right to elect free agency while keeping all of his money. Instead, he had to stick around in a non-roster depth role in order to keep collecting his paychecks.
But the injury to Alvarez allowed Nido to get back on the roster and cross that five-year mark. That means that, if he clears waivers again, he can keep all that money and become a free agent. In that scenario, any club could sign him for the prorated league minimum while the Mets would remain on the hook for most of the money.
Nido has hit just .214/.251/.313 in his career, production that translates to a wRC+ of 57, but he has a solid defensive reputation that could give him some appeal to other clubs. J.T. Realmuto of the Phillies will be undergoing knee surgery while Yainer Diaz of the Astros is banged up with a right index finger injury and Elias Díaz of the Rockies is dealing with a calf issue.