The Crane Pool Forum

The bridge to Francisco Álvarez has found a new employer in Houston.

As placeholders go, not bad. Didn't even start to suck until the baton was passed, but then. Hoo boy.

A walkoff hero in May, disposable in June.

You basic garden variety backup catcher.
I didn't expect much from him and he barely met those expectations.
Later

Narváez had four trips to the plate after his walkoff hit against San Francisco. It only feels (to me, at least) like that was his last time up as a Met. It would have been cool, and possibly unprecedented, if a little ungrateful, to let him go out that way. The writing was certainly on the wall at the time.

Had an impressive start to his Mets career, collecting a hit, a walk, and a run scored on opening day 2023.

His joining Houston gives the Mets two oddities:

Firstly, for the second time in three series, a team is adding a catcher who played for the Mets earlier this season, just before a series with the Mets, forcing them to circle the wagons and possibly pivot from potential intelligence breaches.

Secondly, his employment means the Mets have a starting catcher playing like an All-Star, while they are continuing to pay more money to each of three other catchers playing for other teams.

Who are the other two?

Tomás Nido is getting paid $2.1 million by the Mets to be a Cub and James McCann be getting paid $9.5 million by the Mets to be an Oriole.

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 5:01 pm Tomás Nido is getting paid $2.1 million by the Mets to be a Cub and James McCann be getting paid $9.5 million by the Mets to be an Oriole.

Wow, the Mets attempting to upgrade the catcher position while saving money with the McCann signing has really been a costly mistake for the organization. Hard to imagine that McCann ($9.5 mil.) makes over 3 times what Alvarez ($2.7 mil.$762,500) does while Nido ($2.1 mil.) & Narvaez ($2.5 mil.) make almost the same. Throw in Torrens ($1.3 mil.) and the Mets are currently paying ($18.1 mil.$16.1 mil.) to catchers with James McCann making more than half of that to be the Orioles back up.

Sometimes, life just doesn't seem fair. I guess Alvarez is paying his dues and setting the stage for his big pay day in the future.*

*=This likely would have been better placed in the Alvarez thread, but I have no idea how to move it and I don't want to double post.

The Hot Corner wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 10:59 am

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 5:01 pm Tomás Nido is getting paid $2.1 million by the Mets to be a Cub and James McCann be getting paid $9.5 million by the Mets to be an Oriole.

Wow, the Mets attempting to upgrade the catcher position while saving money with the McCann signing has really been a costly mistake for the organization. Hard to imagine that McCann ($9.5 mil.) makes over 3 times what Alvarez ($2.7 mil.) does while Nido ($2.1 mil.) & Narvaez ($2.5 mil.) make almost the same. Throw in Torrens ($1.3 mil.) and the Mets are currently paying ($18.1 mil.) to catchers with James McCann making more than half of that to be the Orioles back up.

Sometimes, life just doesn't seem fair. I guess Alvarez is paying his dues and setting the stage for his big pay day in the future.

That's how it goes. It's got nothing to do with fairness.

The Hot Corner wrote: ↑Fri Jun 28, 2024 10:59 amSometimes, life just doesn't seem fair.

Life is rarely, if ever, fair. When Matt Harvey looked like the best pitcher on the planet in 2013 before he hurt himself, he was earning just under half a million dollars a year with the Mets. In 2019, when he was a shell of his former self and already, essentially done toast, the Angels signed him to an eleven million dollar contract.

Where's that $2.7 million figure for Álvarez coming from? Cot's Baseball Contracts has him at $762,500.

If we want something like fairness, let us all oppose the anti-trust exemption with a passion.

I did a search earlier today to confirm the salaries of all 5 catchers. You are correct that Alvarez appears to be on a 1 year deal for $762,500. I thought the $2.7 was damn good considering being totally under team control, but that is what popped up this morning. Or perhaps, I needed a little more coffee this morning.

Anyway, you are correct regarding his salary being $762,500 for 2024.

The good news is that the $20M or so that the Mets are paying catchers to play for other teams comes off the books this year. And that Torrens at least is a serviceable #2 the rest of the way this year. Yeah, he won't sustain his current stat line, but I will happily argue that his game-ending double play was the turning point for the season (with all due respects to Grimace), and that is enough to keep him on the roster regardless of how the rest of the year goes.