Per Will Sammon of the Athletic, Francisco Alvarez will be activated before the Mets game Tuesday night. Typical recovery for a torn meniscus is six to eight weeks and Alvarez is returning in four.

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Alvarez has a history of freak injuries and quick recoveries. At the end of the 2022 season he got ankle cartilage surgery which can take over six months to return to form, but arrived at spring training ready to go. In April 2024, he tore a ligament in his thumb with an expected recovery timeline of eight weeks. He returned in just over five. When he broke his hamate in 2025 he was expected to miss the first six to eight weeks of the season and missed roughly four.

Since Alvarez was optioned to Triple-A to fix his swing in 2025, he has been the fourth-best offensive catcher in baseball slashing .260/.340/.481/.821. Even with a slow start this year slashing .241/.317/.393/.710, Alvarez’s 104 WRC+ is 32% better than Luis Torrens‘ 72 WRC+ and his .710 OPS is 112 points higher than Torrens’ .598.

Defensively, Alvarez has been a mixed bag in his first season without catching coach Glenn Sherlock. He still has shown plus pop times, but is not as strong at blocking or throwing out runners as Torrens. The one area he has been reported to shine significantly over Torrens is in his game calling. Back to his time as a prospect even veterans like Max Scherzer raved about Alvarez’s ability to work with pitchers.

Whether catching every day or splitting time between catcher and designated hitter, Alvarez lengthens the Mets lineup and should benefit this pitching staff.

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Kodai Senga Shut Down

Kodai Senga will not make his scheduled rehab start on Tuesday because of ulnar nerve irritation. This is another in a long line of injuries, but this one could be more serious as elbow injuries can lead to tommy john or internal brace surgery.

Jeffrey Springs is a recent example of pitcher who had this same injury and got elbow surgery soon after. Gerrit Cole and Garrett Whitlock had the same issue but did not get surgery until around a year later. Ben Joyce and Janson Junk had the same issue but have not had to undergo elbow surgery.

When healthy Kodai Senga has performed well, throwing 305 innings to a 3.39 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. But he has only pitched in 57 total games across three plus seasons, missing roughly 45% of potential games. Since joining the Mets he has had a shoulder injury, a calf injury, a hamstring injury, a back injury and now an elbow injury.

In his two Triple-A rehab starts his velocity was significantly down, he struggled to find the zone, he failed to generate extension, his spin rate was worse, and he struggled to get his normal movement on his pitches. All of this makes sense and lines up with an elbow injury.

If Senga does end up getting elbow surgery it is possible he may not make a start for the Mets again. The Mets do have a 2028 $15 million conditional club option that triggers if Senga either has Tommy John surgery, or an elbow surgery that keeps him on the injured list for 130 days (there are 110 days left in the 2026 season).