So far, so good for Francisco Alvarez.
The Mets catcher continues his rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday, catching and hitting third in the order.
According to manager Carlos Mendoza, Alvarez, who went 0-for-4 as the DH for Syracuse on Saturday, came out of the game feeling fine and is still moving in the right direction towards a return to the big leagues.
Alvarez is scheduled to catch seven-to-nine innings on Sunday, will have the day off on Monday with the rest of the Syracuse team, and then the team will have a decision to make about what comes next.
Could the next step be a return to the big leagues this week?
“At this point, nothing is going to surprise me or all of us in here,” said Mendoza. “It’s pretty remarkable what he’s doing. So, yeah, we’ll see how it goes today. Pretty sure he’s off tomorrow and then we’ll see what the next day is going to look like. But again, having him catch real games and how he’s going to feel afterwards is the biggest test.”
Alvarez has had a string of bad injury luck of late, all involving his hands. After tearing the UCL in his right thumb while sliding into second base earlier this month, Alvarez then broke his pinky finger in his left hand after getting hit by a pitch during his rehab assignment on Wednesday.
As Mendoza said, hitting doesn’t seem to be an issue for Alvarez at this point, but his ability to receive the ball with that fractured left pinky will determine how quickly he can get back in the Mets’ lineup.
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