As the New York Mets look to right the ship and secure their place as a playoff team, they’ll need to do so without young catcher and budding star Francisco Alvarez.
The Mets placed Alvarez on the 10-day IL on Tuesday with a UCL sprain in his right thumb. Alvarez’s injury comes amid a season-changing hot streak, one where he’s hit .323 with four home runs, 13 RBI, six doubles and a stellar 1.054 OPS in 21 games since being recalled from Triple-A in mid-July.
It is unclear whether Alvarez will have thumb surgery soon or if he’ll wait until the offseason. Surgery would end Alvarez’s season at a time when the 67-58 Mets hold a narrow one-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds for the NL’s third and final Wild Card seed.
If anyone stands to gain from Alvarez’s thumb problem, it might be 2022 first-round pick Kevin Parada. A former Georgia Tech standout who won the 2022 Buster Posey Award as Division I’s best catcher, Parada entered Wednesday hitting .251 with nine home runs, 43 RBI, and a .750 OPS across 313 Double-A plate appearances. That might not jump off the page, but the reality of New York's depth chart means desperate times could call for desperate measures.
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The Mets must consider promoting Kevin Parada to replace Francisco Alvarez
We wouldn’t blame the Mets if they’re hesitant to promote Parada, who hasn’t even reached Triple-A yet. However, desperate times often call for desperate measures, and the Mets are running out of time. Less than 40 games remain for a Mets team that just endured a disastrous stretch where they went from 62-44 and ahead in the NL East to 67-58 and five games back.
By no means are we suggesting that the 24-year-old Parada is the missing piece to the Mets’ title hopes. At the same time, what do the Mets have to lose? Taking the chance on Parada is far more intriguing than sticking with the current duo of Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger, even if those two are far more acquainted with the Mets’ pitching staff.
There are cold streaks, and then there’s the aforementioned 5-14 slump. Those kinds of periods can completely change a season, and the Mets are lucky that they’re even still in the playoff race. Plus, a five-game deficit in the NL East isn’t impossible to overcome, as the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies will attest to.
The most common themes of Steve Cohen’s tenure as owner have been aggressiveness and risk. Cohen made his impact felt early when he acquired Cleveland Guardians shortstop Francisco Lindor following the 2020 season, and he obviously broke the bank for Juan Soto last winter. If the Mets are smart, they’ll do their part to get Parada sharing a lineup with those two before week’s end.