The Mets suffered another big blow this weekend, as catcher Francisco Alvarez will be sidelined for six-to-eight weeks after suffering a fractured hamate bone in his left hand during live at-bats.
Alvarez underwent surgery on Monday, and as long as everything heals as planned, president of baseball operations David Stearns anticipates that he’ll be back in action around the eight-week mark.
“He is a catcher and this is his receiving hand,” Stearns said. “So realistically we’re looking towards the longer end of that six-to-eight week range. I think that’s probably where we set our expectations — but we don’t anticipate this being a lengthy injury.”
The fact that Alvarez will likely be able to return a little over a month into the season is certainly a bit of encouraging news, but it still leaves the Mets without their young starter behind the dish to begin the year.
Backup Luis Torrens is expected to slot into that role for the time being.
Torrens has been a journeyman to this point in his career, but he found a home with the Mets last year — providing some much-needed stability behind Alvarez after being acquired in a midseason deal with the Yankees.
This will be the veteran’s first time holding a starting spot in the majors since 2021 when he appeared in 110 games with the Seattle Mariners, but he is ready to embrace the expanded role.
“I’m going to take this as a huge responsibility,” Torrens said through a translator. “This team has high expectations this year — it’s a great opportunity for me to go out there each and every day and try to help this team win and keep those expectations high. When he comes back, the plan is to leave this team in a good position.”
Torrens got off to a spectacular start offensively, smacking two home runs in just his fourth game with the team and then posting an .877 OPS in July — before he ultimately slowed down significantly.
But the 29-year-old remained a weapon defensively — finishing in the 94th percentile in both pop time (1.87) and caught stealing above average (6), while throwing out 46.4 percent of attempted base stealers.
“We feel pretty conformable with him,” Carlos Mendoza said. “This is a guy that does a pretty good job handling the pitching staff. Just like Alvy he has those leadership skills, he can receive, he can really throw. Offensively, he gave us some really good at-bats.
“We’re very confident with him behind the plate and we have to take care of him.”
Torrens showcased that potential during his first spring game as the starter on Monday night against the Cardinals, cracking an opposite-field two-run homer and picking off a runner with a snap-throw at first.
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