Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Mets catcher Omar Narváez left Wednesday’s contest with a tweaked calf, Buck Showalter told the media after the game. He’s currently day-to-day and will be evaluated shortly.
Narváez reportedly felt something in his left calf during his last at-bat, in which he flew out to lead off the top of the ninth. The Mets brought in Tomás Nido to catch the final inning, though that didn’t last long, as Garrett Mitchell hit a walk-off homer against Adam Ottavino to complete the three-game sweep.
Narváez has started five of the Mets’ seven games this year, going 4-for-14 with two walks and two RBIs. The Mets signed him in December to replace fellow veteran catcher James McCann. While he posted just a .597 OPS last year, he has a respectable .728 mark for his career and is expected to be a worthy, if unspectacular, piece of this lineup.
Narváez and Nido are the only two catchers on the Mets’ active roster. The only other catcher on the 40-man roster is Mets top prospect Francisco Álvarez, who happened to hit a home run earlier on Wednesday. Álvarez has a 1.056 OPS in the very early goings of the Triple-A season. He had a five-game cup of coffee with the big club last season, going 2-for-12 with a home run.
If Narváez’s injury proves to be serious enough, Álvarez could get an unexpectedly quick call-up to fill a need. However, Narváez is not on the injured list yet, and the Mets will have to wait for his evaluation to decide the best course of action to take.
This young Mets season has already been hampered by injuries to Edwin Díaz, Jose Quintana and Justin Verlander, just to name a few. Mets prospect Brett Baty, who’s bubbling under the majors in a similar fashion as Álvarez, also had an injury scare Tuesday, but it turned out to be nothing major and he should be back in the Syracuse Mets’ lineup shortly.
The Mets will look to bounce back from a sweep to the Brewers in their home opener against the Marlins at 1:10 p.m. ET.
