Alvarez took batting practice at Citi Field on Monday and will graduate to Minor League games Wednesday or Thursday. Because Alvarez will have missed only a week and a half of game action at that point, he theoretically won’t need a lengthy rehab assignment.
“I couldn’t believe it [Sunday], somebody sent me a video of him hitting back here at Citi Field,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When I was looking at it, I was like, ‘There’s no way this guy is swinging the bat.’”
This is strictly a pain tolerance issue for Alvarez, who sprained the UCL in his right thumb on Aug. 17 and will require postseason surgery to fix it. Until that point, Alvarez can continue to play, knowing the worst possible outcome would be him tearing the ligament completely and undergoing surgery sooner than expected. Either way, Alvarez should be ready for the start of Spring Training.
The Mets are certainly motivated to let him try, considering he was slashing .323/.408/.645 in 21 games since returning from a brief demotion to the Minors. In Alvarez’s absence, Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger have split time at catcher. Neither is the same type of offensive force as Alvarez.
“The swinging part, there’s no hesitation there,” Mendoza said of Alvarez’s batting practice work.
Although Mets officials initially believed hitting, not throwing, would be Alvarez’s greatest challenge in playing through a torn thumb ligament, the team still isn’t sure how he will respond to a throwing program. The plan is for Alvarez to serve as a catcher, not a DH, once he returns. But if throwing causes him pain in a way that hitting does not, the team might consider using Alvarez as a DH — something that could cut into the playing time of hot hitters Starling Marte and Mark Vientos.
“That’s a tough one,” Mendoza said. “But if he’s swinging the bat the way he was swinging it before he went down, you’ve got to find a way to get him in there as much as you can.”
