Quinton Fesq
The NY Mets have spent most of the season trying to patch bigger holes, but Luis Torrens is giving them something they should not overlook.
Production from the nine-hole is usually a bonus. Production from the nine-hole when it comes from a catcher filling a bigger role is a different kind of value.
Torrens has quietly turned into a useful answer there, and the latest stretch has more behind it than a few cheap singles falling in.
Torrens is giving the Mets real offense from a low-expectation spot
Since May 23, Torrens is hitting .310/.375/.517 with a .892 OPS across 33 plate appearances. That is not a massive sample, but it is loud enough to matter for a Mets lineup that has needed production anywhere it can find it.
During this window, Torrens had 12 balls in play at 90+ mph, including the 107.3 mph homer he hit Friday night in San Diego.
That is where the conversation changes a bit. A catcher hitting ninth does not need to carry an offense. He needs to keep the bottom of the order from turning into a dead zone, and Torrens has been doing that.
Friday was the cleaner example. Torrens doubled, launched his first homer of the season, and helped push the Mets to a 5-0 win over the Padres. That is real impact from a spot most teams are just trying to survive.
The catcher math looks better than expected
The Mets did not plan for Torrens to become this important this quickly, but Francisco Alvarez’s knee injury changed the board. Once Alvarez went down, Torrens became the cleaner option to handle most of the catching work.
That matters because the Mets’ injury picture has already been a problem. The club has been juggling several moving pieces, and I wrote recently that the injury mess was starting to look impossible to ignore. Getting stable production from catcher does not solve that, but it removes one more headache.
The Mets already valued Torrens enough to give him a two-year, $11.5 million extension in May, and the recent stretch makes that bet look a lot cleaner. He is not being paid like a star. He is being paid like a useful catcher who can protect the roster when things get messy.
That is exactly what he is doing right now.
This is also not the first time Torrens has popped up in a meaningful spot. His pinch-hit double helped flip an April win over the Giants, and the Mets bench played that moment perfectly.
I would not overcook it. Torrens is still a catcher with a modest offensive track record, and this kind of stretch can cool quickly. But the Mets do not need him to be something bigger than the job.
They need him to give them professional at-bats, hit the ball hard enough to punish mistakes, and keep the lineup from folding at the bottom. For the last two weeks, he has done all three.
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