Mets Notes: Francisco Alvarez not in lineup after defensive blunder; injury updates

After a disappointing loss to the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night that saw the Mets make a slew of costly mistakes, New York will look to rebound on Wednesday in the middle game of the three-game series.

Before the game, manager Carlos Mendoza touched on the loss and also gave updates on a few of his injured players.

Francisco Alvarez out, Luis Torrens in

Following a throwing blunder in the bottom of the 10th inning that led to the game-winning run to score, the 23-year-old catcher is not in Wednesday’s starting lineup. In Alvarez’s place, Torrens is behind the plate and batting sixth against LHP Chris Sale.

With both catchers essentially splitting duties so far this season after Alvarez began the season on the IL with a hamate bone fracture, the decision to bench the young backstop isn’t necessarily due to his misplay. However, Mendoza did say that both players will continue to get playing time even with Torrens struggling offensively.

“I’ve been saying it, they’re both gonna play,” the skipper said. “So I just thought getting Luis in there, it needs to continue to be that way. Alvy will play, Luis will play and I just thought today was a good day for Luis to be in the lineup.”

For what it’s worth, Alvarez took responsibility for his gaffe after last night’s game and was clearly upset about it. Nevertheless, his production offensively and defensively hasn’t been great this season and he went 0-for-3 with a walk and run scored in the loss.

The down year by Alvarez thus far is disappointing after he burst onto the season in 2023 with 25 home runs during his rookie season. He has just five extra-base hits in 115 at-bats this season and is hitting .235 with a .636 OPS.

Regardless, Mendoza has seen some signs that the youngster could be on the right track.

“He’s on time for the fastball,” Mendoza said. “Yesterday I didn’t see that, in particular, but I’m gonna go back to the past week where I feel like he’s hitting the ball in the air, he’s hitting the ball hard – something that we didn’t see early on when he got back from the injury.

“I like some of the takes, some of the breaking balls that he’s taking, so I do feel that he’s – I know he’s working and it hasn’t been easy for him, but the one thing with Alvy is he’s very positive and he’ll continue to grind through it.”

Despite leaving him out of the lineup, Mendoza knows how important Alvarez is to the team and that to get him out of the funk he’s been in, he needs to be in lineup.

“In Alvy’s case, the way you’re gonna fight through it is by being in the lineup. You can hit outside and hit early and things like that, but he knows how important he is for this team and we know how important he is and we’re gonna need him, obviously. So, we’ll continue to help him and work with him. He’s got a lot of potential,” Mendoza said.

On the injury front

Frankie Montas (right lat strain) is making his sixth rehab start on Wednesday and his fourth for Triple-A Syracuse.

It hasn’t gone well for the right-hander who signed with New York during the offseason, owning a 13.17 ERA (2.34 WHIP) in just 13.2 innings. In his last start, Montas managed to only go 1.2 innings and allowed eight earned runs on seven hits and a walk.

The Mets are hoping for a better performance on Wednesday as they near the deadline to make a decision with the 32-year-old.

“Let’s see how he feels after the outing today,” Mendoza said. “We wanna see execution, obviously, and then we have a decision. We gotta talk to him, but we’re approaching the deadline where we gotta make a decision on him.”

When asked if by a decision he meant using Montas as a reliever or starter with the big league club, Mendoza clarified.

“No, no like activate him,” he said. “Because first he’s gotta be 100 percent healthy, which knock on wood he keeps saying he’s fine. So we just gotta wait, get through today, see how he comes back tomorrow and the next day and then we have a decision.”

With the Mets in need of starting pitching help after injuries to Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill, it’s a bit telling that the team doesn’t seem eager to activate Montas.

Meanwhile, after DHing in his first rehab start, Mark Vientos (hamstring) is off on Wednesday. He’s scheduled to play third base soon and New York would like to see him play back-to-back games in the field before proceeding.

As for another third baseman, Brett Baty is feeling better after missing Tuesday’s game with a groin injury, but Mendoza and the Mets still need to wait and see.

“He’s better, but I gotta see how he goes during BP today and ground balls and things like that,” the skipper said. “But early on when I saw him he said he was feeling a little bit better.”

Who’s starting Friday?

The Mets still don’t know, but are working through it and will likely have a better idea tomorrow.

What they do know is whoever pitches on Friday will give them length — it will not be a bullpen game. Whether the pitcher starts the game or comes in after an opener like New York has done a couple of times this season remains to be seen, although the latter hasn’t been discussed.

“We’ll see,” Mendoza said. “Get through today, tomorrow, but we haven’t talked about a potential opener yet, so we gotta see what kind of shape we’re in going into that game.”