The Mets‘ catching situation has gotten much murkier since the beginning of the season.
Francisco Álvarez, the team’s starting catcher to begin the season, jammed his thumb in the dirt while trying to advance to second in a game against the Dodgers and tore his ulnar collateral ligament.
The tear required surgery to repair, and the 22-year-old will be out for two months.
Since Álvarez has gone down, Omar Narváez and Tomás Nido have handled the catching duties.
However, one of the two has struggled mightily, and it may be time to consider designating him for assignment.
The Mets should consider designating Narváez for assignment
The former all-star came to the Mets before the 2023 season to be the starting catcher until Álvarez was ready to take the leap to the major leagues.
Unfortunately for the blue and orange, Narváez never quite found his footing in 2023 due to suffering a medium-high-grade calf strain early in the campaign. By the time the former all-star got healthy, Álvarez had taken over the starting role.
Narváez got delegated to the backup role to begin the 2024 campaign, and despite moving into the starting role following Álvarez going down, the 32-year-old’s performance has not improved.
In 17 games, Narváez has slashed .186/.222/.233 with no home runs and four RBIs alongside an abysmal 36 OPS+.
Defensively, the 32-year-old has yet to fare much better. Narváez has a negative six defensive runs saved above average and has yet to throw out a single base runner while allowing 30 stolen bases.
Who would replace Narváez
In a scenario where the Mets do DFA Narváez, Nido would temporarily take over the starting role.
The 30-year-old has bounced back from his struggles in 2023, slashing .250/.343/.593 across 13 games at the big league level, alongside one home run and one RBI.
In addition, his defensive prowess would be a massive upgrade from Narváez. Nido has thrown out three of the 15 base runners who have attempted to steal and has a neutral defensive run saved above average.
To back up Nido, the blue and orange could call up someone from Triple-A, like Matt O’Neill, or look at veterans available in the free-agent market.
President of Baseball Operations David Stearns likely won’t be DFA’ing Narváez in the immediate future, but if the former all-star continues to struggle, it may be a conversation that needs to occur in the front office.