Francisco Alvarez gets start Sunday, catching Carlos Carrasco
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez gets ready to throw the ball during a spring training workout in Port St. Lucie. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Francisco Alvarez will make his season debut behind the plate on Sunday, Mets manager Buck Showalter said on Saturday.
Alvarez, 21, was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday when the Mets put No. 1 catcher Omar Narvaez on the injured list with a left calf strain that is supposed to keep him out for at least two months.
Tomas Nido will get the bulk of the catching work with Narvaez out. Alvarez will catch Carlos Carrasco on Sunday. Showalter said he isn’t necessarily trying to match up Alvarez with pitchers he’s familiar with, but he acknowledged that it doesn’t hurt to start that way.
“Sure,” he said. “But at some point, they’ve got to get comfortable with you and you’ve got to get comfortable with them. There’s only one way to do that, right? All the guys have no problem throwing to him. In fact, they embrace it.”
Alvarez worked feverishly on his defense in spring training, which could be part of why he hit .107 (3-for-28). The Mets are confident that he will hit in the majors and appreciate his attention to defensive detail.
“He’s very into it, very energetic,” Showalter said. “You can tell he’s very much into the other part of the game. He knows that’s something he’s got to be good at and he’s really chasing it. He chased it in the spring, [from the] first day of spring making pitchers comfortable with him.”
Canha at first
Mark Canha started at first base with Pete Alonso as the designated hitter. It was Canha’s first start at the position since 2020, when he was with Oakland. Canha has started 82 games at first, with 57 of them coming in his rookie year of 2015.
“Mark’s a guy that whatever the club needs — centerfield, rightfield, leftfield, DH, first base — and he’s played it a lot,” Showalter said. “This is not something that is new or experimental. He’s played first base.”
Canha, whose most impactful play was fielding a squibber hit by Jean Segura to end the first inning with two men on, went 2-for-4 with a double.
Darin Ruf would have been the backup first baseman had the Mets not cut him before the season. Ruf signed a minor-league contract with San Francisco on Saturday. The Mets acquired Ruf from the Giants last Aug. 2 for J.D. Davis and pitching prospects Thomas Szapucki, Carson Seymour and Nick Zwack but let him go after a disappointing tenure as a Met.
Trainer’s room
The word on Tylor Megill, who was hit in the calf by a comebacker on Friday, is “so far, so good,” Showalter said. “Don’t think it’s going to be an issue before the next start.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
