Back With Another One of Those Block Rockin' Reetz

Hello hello hello and welcome to Free Mondays. Yes, Mondays are good for exactly one(1) thing. If you want to make everyday a Monday…wait, no. I’ll try it this way: If you want The Mets Newsletter sitting in your mailbox every morning, including weekends, subscribe. Treat yourself.

Francisco Alvarez is only 23 years old. He has his whole life ahead of him. Unfortunately, he’ll have to live it without his left hamate bone. The catcher somehow fractured it on a swing during batting practice on Saturday. Nope, he wasn’t hit by an errant pitch -  the fracture just randomly occurred off of a swing. He’ll have surgery and be out for 6-8 weeks, meaning he’ll definitely be MIA for Opening Day and at least most of April. This is the second year in a row Alvarez has had a fluky injury early in a season - you might recall last April 19th when he tore a thumb ligament slipping on a basepath and missed significant time. I pontificated after the Brandon Nimmo injury news yesterday online that stuff like this is happening as karma for the Met fans who no doubt have been making fun of the Yankees for their serious injury problems, so I suppose we should have all seen this coming. Say what you want about Alvy’s batting struggles, but he’s reportedly a benevolent presence in the clubhouse, knows how to handle the pitching staff, and is known for his work ethic. New guy Clay Holmes even noticed it. He’ll be missed.

The immediate question is who will replace Alvarez as the starting catcher. The immediate answer is Luis Torrens, who acquitted himself pretty well on the Mets last season, at least in the first half, when he hit for an .881 OPS while playing excellent defense, most notably starting the 1-3 double play to give the Mets a much-needed win in London against the Phillies. The second half was another story. Post All-Star game Torrens slashed .180/.260/.231 backing up Alvy. But he’ll have to do for at least the first month of the 2025 regular season. It’s really unlikely the Mets will make a trade or sign an established starting catcher just for 30 or so days, so it’s looking like Torrens’ gig. The better question is who will back Luis up. Kevin Parada was already cut from major league camp, so the in-house options are household names Hayden Senger (28 years old), Jakson Reetz (29), and Chris Williams (also 28). Reetz took advantage of his starting gig in yesterday’s game against the Nationals by clubbing a grand slam off of one of their starting pitchers Jake Irvin. So I guess Rakson “Yeah” Jeetz has the very early lead in the backup catcher clubhouse lead. (His claim to fame currently is very briefly being Single-A teammates with Juan Soto in 2018.) 

As for the other two contestants, Senger won the Mets’ “Platinum Glove” award in 2023, given to the best defender at any level at any position in the Mets farm system. The problem is his stick, but David Stearns pointed out that he has the most experience of the three with handling the pitching in the org, which the President of Baseball Operations considers an advantage, even though that only really applies to Tylor Megill out of any of the rotation guys, and a handful of potential bullpen pieces. Williams was with the Triple-A Minnesota Twins team the last two seasons. Stearns said he “probably has the most power and offensive upside of the group.” Chris Williams though has by far the most boring name, so…

As far as folks outside the organization that could potentially be acquired, James McCann is currently a free agent…why are you laughing? Old chum Tomás Nido, who hit two home runs for the Tigers the other day, might be available. He knows how to catch some of the Mets pitchers too. We’ll see. The Mets currently have a spot available on the 40-man after they waived Sean Reid-Foley, so that won’t be an issue.

In happier news, the Mets have themselves a little fake winning streak going, taking yesterday’s game 7-6 over the Washington Nationals. Clay Holmes continued to prove he might actually pull off this reliever to starter transformation by only allowing one hit in 3.2 innings of work. He struck out eight. Out of his 67 pitches, 13 were swings and misses. He used six different pitches to get those whiffs. (Kick change, slider, sinker, cutter, 4-seamer, sweeper.) He did walk three batters, not having a good feel on his sinker, which forced him to get more creative than usual in his pitch selection, just like a starting pitcher would! Mendoza singled out his kick change in particular as being “really, really good”, especially against the right-handed batters. You’d think for Holmes’ next start he’ll be aiming to throw 80 pitches. His career high is 82, thrown on July 14, 2018 as a Pirate. His line so far in a Mets uni:  9 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 13 K. Yes, that’ll play.

Kodai Senga faced batters in a live BP session in the PSL backfields during the Nationals-Mets game. He went four innings, throwing 50 pitches. Senga said afterwards he’s still working on stuff and is “not 100 percent content,” but he seems like one of those dudes who is never satisfied with his mechanics. Assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel - who the Mets poached from the Yankees last offseason - were Mendoza’s eyes and ears, as Mendoza was busy managing the actual game. Druschel reported that Senga’s two best pitches were sinkers, and that his velo was down a little bit, but it was written off by Senga as a byproduct of it being live BP and not an actual game. I am choosing to take his word for it. The alternative is stressing out over a possible injury, and there are enough actual Met injuries to lose sleep over already.

The Edwin Díaz Experience made a stop in Port St. Lucie yesterday. Walk, walk, strike out, strike out, strike out for Sugar. His spring ERA dipped down to 13.50. He threw 18 four-seamers and nine sliders. While he only got two swings and misses on the fastballs, he was 3 for 9 in getting the Nationals to whiff on the slidepieces. 

Génesis Cabrera might have pitched himself off the Opening Day roster yesterday, allowing four hits and five runs (three earned) in just one third of an inning. 

A bunch of pitchers were cut from major league camp, most notably Justin Hagenman and Brandon Waddell, who at the start of spring were considered to be ahead of Brandon Sproat and Blade Tidwell on the rotation depth chart. The other hurlers were Austin Warren, Rico Garcia, Grant Hartwig, Kevin Herget, and Yacksel Ríos. (Garcia and Hartwig pitched yesterday to middling results). Infielder Jared Young was also cut, optioned to Triple-A. Young had an outside shot a few weeks ago at the final infield spot on the OD roster, but he only plays first base and is not named Pete Alonso, and 1B-only Joey Meneses has outperformed him anyway. 

And then there were 49 players left in major league camp…

Tim Healey of Newsday asked Met hitters who had the nastiest stuff on the team. Clay Holmes’ changeup came in third. Tied for second was Senga’s splitter and Sugar’s fastball. Number one honors went to Holmes again, this time for his sinker. Tyrone Taylor, usually a good quote, opined, ““Everybody throws so hard nowadays. It’s (expletive) crazy.” When Healey told him he sounded dejected, the outfielder replied, “I am. It’s no joke.” Then why am I laughing?

Mark Vientos homered for the first time this spring. He’s hitting .273 in fake games so far so it wasn’t particularly worrisome that it took two weeks to go deep. This graphic by WPIX/SNY also would have assuaged any fears.

During the late innings yesterday, Travis Swaggerty was playing left field for the Mets, while Rowdey Jordan patrolled center. Hayden Senger caught Senga’s BP session, making the battery Senga/Senger. 

"Tomorrow, we should start ramping him back up", Carlos Mendoza said regarding Brandon Nimmo. We’ll see how good that a knee gel injection actually is I guess.

Steve Gelbs on the broadcast said something kind of interesting. He claimed that in both the spring trainings of 2016 and 2023, the year after making the playoffs, the Mets were “tight”, weighed down by expectation. That, to Gelbs, doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. Gelbs has access none of us have, but is he forgetting when Yoenis Céspedes and Noah Syndergaard rode into camp one 2016 day on horses? That didn’t seem tight, at least not in the way Gelbs meant it. 

Keith Hernandez on why he isn't a fan of the ABS system: "I'm not being an old dinosaur here. I just think you're gonna get umpires mad at you and they'll stick it you know...stick it to you down the road."

"Well if you're right every time it doesn't matter," Steve Gelbs pointed out.

Keith did later say he would only use the ABS system in “big-game” situations, late in games. That makes sense. Like how in the NBA coaches have learned to ignore their whiny charges when they ask for a replay until the 4th quarter. 

Speaking of broadcasters, on this day in 1962, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, and Ralph Kiner called their first Mets game together, an 8-0 loss to the Cardinals, naturally. That same year, the Kirk Douglas movie Keith Hernandez gushed about yesterday, Lonely Are the Brave, was released in theaters. He somehow neglected to mention in his glowing review the casting of Gena Rowlands and Walter Matthau as a sheriff!