Media availability was held by Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and baseball operations president David Stearns prior to Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies on SNY at 7:10 p.m. The MLB trade deadline, infielder Ronny Mauricio’s scorching Triple-A start, and catcher Francisco Alvarez’s 2025 season problems were discussed in addition to injury reports.
Francisco Alvarez is going to “keep getting opportunities.”
Alvarez returns to the lineup in eighth place and starts Friday slashing after Luis Torrens began Wednesday’s 9–4 loss to the Chicago White Sox. 243/.341/.311 with seven RBI and one home run in 22 games.
“We saw he was having a hard time against velo, but I’m going to continue to say we need him and I’m going to continue to give him chances,” Mendoza stated. “Yes, Luis is performing admirably. However, Alvy is also a very skilled player.
“So, whether it’s lefties, righties, he’s going to continue to get opportunities and he’s in there today.”
After being placed on the 10-day disabled list on March 27 because of a hamate fracture, Alvarez was activated by the Mets on April 25. After a rehab stint that began on April 9 with Low-A St. Lucie and progressed to Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, Alvarez rejoined the Mets.
“A player who made a very significant swing change in the offseason, lost all of spring training — or almost all of spring training — got off to a late start and has probably been fighting himself to this point,” Stearns stated. “I believe that he hasn’t produced as much as he usually does.
“He’s working really hard to continue to refine his swing, to get it to a place that he feels really comfortable with, and I think we all would expect that we’re going to see better production going forward than what we’ve seen in his relatively brief stint since he’s come off the IL.”
‘Hitting lasers’ is how Ronny Mauricio describes himself.
Mauricio has slashed seven games for Triple-A Syracuse. 560/.586/.960 with seven RBI and three home homers.
What does Mauricio, who began this season with St. Lucie and Syracuse after missing the 2024 season due to a ruptured right ACL, have to do for a look?
Stearns remarked, “He’s doing a great job,” “Health, bringing him back, and increasing the volume are our top priorities, and we’re keeping up with that. However, you pay notice when you see players in Triple-A consistently blasting lasers all over the field, like he is doing at the moment. We’re listening, and we’ll keep an eye on that to see where it goes.”
“I think we’re most focused on him getting the reps under him, getting the volume, hopefully continuing to swing a really hot bat,” Stearns said. “Once we get to that point, he gives us something to think about.”
MLB trading deadline for 2025
Even though July 31 at 6 p.m. is still two months away, preparations are already underway. Edwin Diaz’s brother, Alexis Diaz, a 2023 All-Star reliever, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers by the Cincinnati Reds this week.
Stearns was asked if he felt the trade deadline could be moved earlier than usual because a large portion of the major leagues seemed unlikely to be in contention for the postseason.
“I haven’t seen anything yet or heard anything yet that makes me suggest that’s going to be an unusually early period, but that can certainly change if one club decides that they want to engage early and could spur action,” he stated. “But to this point, it certainly seems that that’s going to be a little bit more of a traditional, later-in-the-process-type deadline.”
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