Reese Kaplan -- The Cracks in the Ice Keep on Coming

In the realm of “it can’t get any worse than it already is,” Mets fans learned earlier this week that catcher Francisco Alvarez has joined the torn meniscus brigade and has been placed on the IL for the foreseeable future which includes scheduled surgery.  The timeline projected for recovery is at minimum eight weeks, so figure late July at the absolute earliest for a return.  This was even before Juan Soto left the game after fouling a ball off his foot.

Naturally the team made a call to Syracuse to summon career backup catcher Hayden Senger to New York to take is place on the roster.  Senger is known as a great glove and a balsa wood bat.  Combined with the similar Luis Torrens, the Mets’ collective offense has taken yet another step backwards due to this injury.

I woke up Thursday morning to the ill-reasoned suggestion by a fellow Mets fan that the team reach out to the Angels to try to secure the $6 million services of former Met Travis d’Arnaud.  We all remember the oft-injured backstop whose offense never quite caught up with expectations.  Gone is the youngster from those days and now we find d’Arnaud making his behind the dish duties as a last gasp at age 37 which is senior citizen territory for guys who wear all the protective gear.  He’s not had a decent offensive year since 2022 and is currently squatting directly on the Mendoza line.  To rid themselves of his salary the Angels might even chip in to upgrade his seat across the country to first class.

When I thought about this familiar but unnecessary reunion with another former Met I kind of got a recent Tommy Pham flashback.  There have been others...many others as well. Simply having been on the payroll in the past is not enough to look past what a player can still contribute towards winning games.  If we encapsulate d’Arnaud’s 2023 through 2026 numbers the picture doesn’t get any clearer.  He’s hit .221 combined and while still showing some power the contact numbers are not good.  Paying a relatively high price for a few months of service which would then likely lead to a DFA doesn’t seem to make baseball nor economic sense.

Are there other catchers out there who might provide better offense than Senger?  Surely as you peruse the backups on the other 29 teams there are lkely any number of near minimum wage catchers who could fit this role and possibly be useful in the future as a reserve in AAA. 

This is not an unfair knock on Senger. He’s had limited major league opportunity and thus far sports a .181 career major league batting average after earning a .232 mark as a minor leaguer.  Now it’s not as if Luis Torrens is an All Star either.  His mostly Yankee major league career has led to a .226 mark at the plate.  Then again Alvarez is only a .231 hitter so the drop off is not quite as dire as one would think. 

The longer term question for the Mets is whether Alvarez is indeed the answer for the future given his injury history and his underwhelming offense.  We all know that catcher Kevin Parada has not blossomed as projected and Chris Suero is still something of a work in progress as he covers other positions besides catching.  There are lower level minor leaguers with promise but none are soon ready for the majors.  It might pay to consider another team’s starting catcher to hedge your bets for the long term.