The New York Mets have likely lost Francisco Alvarez for the majority of the first half of the 2024 season.
Alvarez has a torn ligament in his left thumb that will require surgery, the team announced after their 6-4 victory on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the organization has not disclosed an official timetable, Mets veteran outfielder Starling Marte said that players were informed of a six-to-eight-week layoff for the up-and-coming star catcher.
“This is something that hopefully we get done at the beginning of next week,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re pretty confident that we’ll get him back this year.”
The 22-year-old was placed on the 10-day injured list before Saturday’s game with what the Mets initially described as a thumb sprain. Additional testing results came down after in the day to reveal the full extent of things.
Alvarez suffered the injury during Friday night’s 9-4 victory over the Dodgers in the second inning while stumbling around first base to advance to second following a throwing error. He went to brace his fall with his left hand and showed significant discomfort after sliding safely into second base.
This was just the latest knock to that left hand, which had received a battering throughout the early portions of the season. He most recently took the backswing of Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Henry Davis during Thursday’s series finale but managed to stay in the game.
In his absence, the Mets selected the contract of veteran backstop Tomas Nido from Triple-A Syracuse. The 30-year-old spent parts of the previous seven seasons with the Mets before being designated for assignment last June.
He will partner up with Omar Narvaez to keep the catching position afloat until Alvarez gets back into the fold, which appears to be sometime in June at the earliest.
