Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez is not ready to shut down what has been a trying 2025 season for him.
Alvarez acknowledged that he likely will need to have surgery eventually on the sprained ligament in his right thumb, but he is planning to put that off until the offseason for an attempt to push through and continue playing through the injury down the stretch.
Alvarez, who suffered the injury sliding headfirst into second base on Aug. 17, has resumed throwing and hitting while wearing a custom-made splint on his right hand. He will begin a minor league rehab assignment Wednesday night for Triple-A Syracuse.
“Right now I don’t feel any pain. … I feel good. I’ve been doing a lot to keep my body ready and in shape,” Alvarez said through an interpreter before Tuesday’s game against the Phillies. “Realistically I do believe I can return as the same player. If there is an instance where there’s pain or some discomfort, I will tell the coaches or the staff and be honest about it and I won’t play.
“But I do have the expectations of being able to have the same type of success or being the same type of player I am.”
The 23-year-old Alvarez opened the season on the IL with a fractured hamate bone that required surgery during spring training. He then started slowly at the plate upon returning, batting .229 with two home runs through June 19 before spending nearly one month at Triple-A.
The fourth-year backstop finally had started hitting after he was recalled on July 21 with four homers, 13 RBIs and a .323/.408/.645 slash line in 21 games before the thumb injury occurred.
“This has been a difficult season for me to begin with,” Alvarez said. “I got hurt in the beginning of the season and there’s been a lot of highs and lows.
“I got hurt last season, as well, so I think if there’s an opportunity that I can come out and play, I’m gonna try to play and try to give my 100 percent to this team and help them in any way that I possibly can. If there’s a way to be on the field, I’m gonna try it.”
Alvarez said he’s still adjusting to playing with the splint, tinkering with his grip on throws and at the plate. He took batting practice and belted at least one opposite-field home run before Tuesday’s game.
“To this point, it couldn’t have gone better,” team president David Stearns said Tuesday on noti.group’s “The Show” podcast. “We haven’t played a game yet, and that will be the real test.
“But I give Alvy a tremendous amount of credit for wanting to do this.”
Carlos Mendoza estimated that Alvarez shouldn’t need more than “a couple of days, three days, a week” in the minors as long as he’s able to tolerate the injury and handle the game conditions.
“Everything, BP, velo and all that looks good,” Mendoza said. “But now we gotta see when he gets fooled with a breaking ball and a check swing and how that’s going.
“Catching, defensively, there’s a lot that we don’t know, but the fact that he’s already on his way to play games, that’s pretty impressive.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
