Mets share promising Francisco Alvarez recovery update

Ahead of the Wednesday afternoon series finale at the Cleveland Guardians, New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza offered a promising update regarding the ongoing recovery of power-hitting catcher Francisco Alvarez.

"He's doing a lot more nowadays," Mendoza said about Alvarez, per Danny Abriano of SNY. "He's already catching, swinging the bat, hitting off the tee, hitting soft toss. I think he's scheduled to take (batting practice) with us when we get back home over the weekend. Progressing well. So, yeah, a lot of good reports on him."

Alvarez last played when he suffered a torn ligament in his left thumb on April 19 that left him needing surgery. While the Mets improved to 12-8 on the season the following day, they fell to 21-27 following back-to-back defeats in Cleveland this week. 

Across 16 games this spring, Alvarez batted .236 with one home run, eight RBI and a .652 OPS. As Tyler Antonelle of Just Baseball pointed out, though, Alvarez's replacements haven't offered the Mets much at or behind the plate over the past month. 

In 123 games last season, Alvarez recorded 25 homers and 63 RBI.

"He's got a splint there that is helping, but yesterday he caught," Mendoza continued. "He's scheduled to catch off a velo machine today. And like I said, BP on the field this weekend, so progressing well."

According to ESPN stats, the Alvarez-less Mets began Wednesday ranked 17th in all of MLB with a .237 team batting average and tied for 16th with 206 runs scored. They were 13.5 games back of the first-place Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East standings but were still part of a crowded wild-card playoff picture as of Wednesday morning. 

Assuming Alvarez is cleared for a rehab assignment sooner rather than later, he could return to the big league lineup by the middle of next month. The fear for the Mets is that owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns will decide over the next several weeks that this is a lost season and that the club should make veterans available to other teams this summer. 

One wonders if the Mets will even delay Alvarez's return to action if they lose more than they win from Wednesday afternoon through the third Sunday of June.