{"id":157860,"date":"2025-08-19T07:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T07:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/157860\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T07:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T07:50:11","slug":"mets-francisco-alvarez-missing-time-could-throw-him-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/157860\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ Francisco Alvarez missing time could ‘throw him off’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mets hadn\u2019t announced the results of Francisco Alvarez\u2019s MRI exam as of Monday, a day after the catcher suffered an injury to his right thumb<\/a> while diving into second base during Sunday\u2019s win over Seattle, but they know how much they can\u2019t afford to lose him for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, they\u2019ve had experience with that before, a history Carlos Mendoza noted Sunday night, when he acknowledged there was \u201cconcern\u201d over the thumb.<\/p>\n

Alvarez had surgery on his left thumb last year after bracing himself when he fell on the bases and fractured his hamate bone on a swing this spring.<\/p>\n

Francisco Alvarez reacts after injuring his thumb during the Mets\u2019 Aug. 17 game. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Both injuries have been a part of a downward trajectory in Alvarez\u2019s young career that resulted in him being optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in June.<\/p>\n

But after compiling an OPS of just .652 through 35 games before being sent to Syracuse, Alvarez returned with a flourish a month later.<\/p>\n

Following Sunday\u2019s three-hit game, Alvarez had an OPS of 1.054 with 11 extra-base hits in 21 games since being recalled.<\/p>\n

Francisco Alvarez singles during the Mets\u2019 Aug. 17 game against the Mariners. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

And he\u2019d been even hotter of late, going 9-for-20 with six extra-base hits in his past five starts behind the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever he did in the minors \u2014 or whatever they did with him \u2014 worked,\u201d one National League scout said Monday. \u201cBut something like this could throw him off for the rest of the year. We\u2019ve seen it with him before. It can take him a while to get going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Alvarez, the Mets would have to turn again to Luis Torrens, a capable backup, but of the 36 catchers with at least 220 plate appearances this season, just two have a lower OPS than Torrens\u2019 .581.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Mets likely can\u2019t afford any more slips, given their place in the standings.<\/p>\n

They entered Monday in second place in the NL East and third in the wild-card standings and begin a three-game series against the last-place Nationals in Washington on Tuesday, followed by three at fourth-place Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Then they have to host the first-place Phillies and third-place Marlins before trips to front-running Detroit, as well as Cincinnati and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Francisco Lindor was named NL Player of the Week on Monday.<\/p>\n

The shortstop had gone hitless in five straight games, part of an 0-for-21 skid, before he snapped out of it Aug. 12 against the Braves.<\/p>\n

Francisco Lindor singles during the Mets\u2019 Aug. 17 game against the Mariners. Robert Sabo for the NY Post<\/p>\n

And over his past five games, Lindor has done nothing but hit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had five consecutive multi-hit games, going 13-for-21 with three doubles, three homers, seven RBIs, two walks and a pair of stolen bases.<\/p>\n

The Mets lost three of those five games, but typically, Lindor\u2019s success at the plate mirrors that of the team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In wins this season, he has an OPS of .991, compared to .535 in losses.<\/p>\n

The Mets announced Monday they requested waivers to grant Paul Blackburn his unconditional release.<\/p>\n

Blackburn had been designated for assignment<\/a> to open a roster spot for Nolan McLean.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Acquired a year ago from the A\u2019s, Blackburn was sidelined by right knee inflammation and didn\u2019t make his season debut until June 2. <\/p>\n

He had a 6.85 ERA in seven games, four starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets hadn\u2019t announced the results of Francisco Alvarez\u2019s MRI exam as of Monday, a day after the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":157861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,7697,1266,405,403,1305,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-157860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-francisco-alvarez","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115054341261539600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}