Mets Catcher Francisco Alvarez To Undergo Surgery

Although the New York Mets are stacking up wins on the field, they suffered a devastating loss to their roster.

Young star catcher Francisco Alvarez left Friday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a thumb injury, and on Saturday, the extent of the damage was revealed. According to team manager Carlos Mendoza, Alvarez has a torn ligament in the thumb and will need to undergo surgery.

Francisco Alvarez has a torn ligament in his thumb and will need to undergo surgery pic.twitter.com/xvLEz6lteH
— SNY (@SNYtv) April 20, 2024

Mendoza told reporters that an initial timetable was not yet available, but was confident in his belief that Alvarez would return during the season. This appears to be the case; in a report from beat writer Pat Ragazzo, Alvarez expects to be to be out 6-8 weeks, a report that teammate Starling Marte relayed to Ragazzo.

Marte says Alvarez told the Mets he expects to be out 6-8 weeks
— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) April 20, 2024

Even though the worst-case scenario has been avoided, this is still a devastating blow to the Mets, as the 22-year-old Alvarez is a key component to the team's future and his development is integral to subsequent success. As a rookie in 2023, he hit 25 home runs and greatly excelled at handling the team's pitching staff, with continually improving defense and game-calling. He has gotten off to a slow start this year, with a .236/.288/.364 slash line and just one home run, but his presence alone makes the Mets' steadily improving lineup more difficult to traverse, while his aforementioned skills behind the plate will be sorely missing.

With Alvarez out, Omar Narvaez will fill in as the starting catcher, while Tomas Nido was called up from Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets have repaired their record to 12-8 by winning six straight games and 12 of their last 15, but with their star catcher out, they will need to find more ways to keep that momentum going.