The Mets are already set to call up top infield prospect Mark Vientos prior to tonight’s game, and SNY’s Andy Martino further reports that the club is also “carefully weighing” a swap of current catcher Michael Perez for veteran Gary Sanchez, who’s with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league deal earlier this month.
The Mets are the second organization of the season for the veteran Sanchez, who originally inked a minor league deal with the Giants but exercised a May 1 opt-out after not being selected to the Major League roster in San Francisco. Sanchez struggled mightily with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, batting just .164/.319/.182 in 69 trips to the plate. He’s been much better with the Mets’ Syracuse affiliate, however, posting a .300/.500/.550 batting line with a homer and two doubles in 28 plate appearances.
Sanchez has a May 19 opt-out date in his deal with the Mets, so a decision on him is due soon one way or another. Swapping him out for Perez, a career .180/.250/.308 batter in 595 Major League plate appearances, would add more offensive upside to a team that has won just six of its past 22 games and fallen six and a half games behind the NL East-leading Braves.
The combination of Sanchez and young Francisco Alvarez isn’t an optimal pairing from a defensive standpoint. That said, it’s worth noting that Sanchez’s defensive grades improved considerably in 2022 after an offseason trade from the Yankees to the Twins (+1 Defensive Runs Saved, 28% caught-stealing rate, positive framing marks from both FanGraphs and Statcast).
It’d only be a temporary arrangement anyhow, as Omar Narvaez is expected back before too long. The veteran backstop, who inked a two-year deal in free agency this past offseason (the second season of which is a player option), has been out since early April due to a calf strain but could return by early June, based on the original timeline of eight to nine weeks the Mets provided for his injury. Tomas Nido could be back even sooner; an eye issue sent him to the 10-day IL seven days ago but was not believed to be overly serious at the time of his placement on the injured list.
Its pretty obvious that they should get rid of Perez and Vogelbach. Gary Sanchez can DH part time with Vientos and catch with Alverez. Nido can be the third string catcher, just to catch Kodai Senga’s starts. If Alvarez doesn’t perform, they can just send him down and keep the platoon of Nido and Sanchez until Narvaez comes back, then they can decide who to designate for assignment depending on the performance of those players
Nido is no longer a mlber
Nido is out with an eye problem. Its possible, even likely, that the eye issue can account for how incredibly terrible his hitting has been this year. No way to tell without seeing him play after the problem is fixed. So to say that he’s no longer an MLBer. is…. short-“sighted”. 😉
Nido couldn’t hit before this injury. Also the team doesn’t carry 3 catchers normally by Nido would not be one of them if they did.
@geofft Nido just got this eye problem, he hasn’t been able to hit ever. Hes been worse this year than years past but honestly hes basically a throw out once every sunday type player. He calls a great game and pitchers seem to like him so I’ll give him thar. Alvarez has been great at framing but I don’t know how well of a game he calls, it doesnt seem like the pitchers enjoy when he catches. He could be partly to blame as to why the pitching hasn’t been very good. I didn’t think the rotation was any good prior to the season starting but I didn’t think it would be this bad
As for Gary Sanchez; Elvis once sang, return to sender.
I’ve watched many games with GS behind the plate, the only concept he can catch is a cold. Catching is a corner stone for a team, Sanchez ain’t it. Mets are hurtin’
To metzfan:
After a poor start, Nido had a .756 OPS over the second half of last season. Against lefties, he was .669 for the year, which is close to league average for a catcher these days.
He’s inconsistent, but he does contribute.
@ LFGMets: See my reply to metzfan.
Saying that Nido has never been able to hit ever is a totally blind misstatement. He’s a back-up at a position where most players hit well below league average. Going form a .600 (or so) OPS to .266 tis year doesn’t just happen to a 28-year old without some sort of extenuating circumstance. The fact is that none of every one of the five bodies the Mets have at catcher is a question mark. Condemning Nido before seeing him after he recovers from the eye problem is pointless. They can send Nido on him on a rehab assignment for a few weeks while they sort out whether Sanchez is or is able to hit major league pitching or not, and make a decision after that.
Michael Perez is batting 1.000 this year. Not sure he can keep up that pace though.
Vogelbach has the third best OPS and OPS+ on the team. What are you talking about?
Aside from that, he’s a hoot watching him run the bases.
Amen.
Mets should claim Brasier so he can tell Sanchez to get in the box.
mlb.com/video/brasier-k-s-sanchez-escapes-jam-c251…
Someone should also sign Brett Gardner to hit grand slams off Brasier
Alvarez is in the 90th percentile in pitch framing he’s really good defensively
He’s been impressive, especially since expectations for his defense have been low. His arm needs a little work, but in addition to pitch framing, he’s been solid at blocking bad pitches and seems to work well with whoever is on the mound. Even when Narvaez is healthy, Alvarez has earned the starting job, imo.
If Sanchez shows he has rediscovered his bat, he could displace Pham from the roster.
On one hand, it must be hard to send someone batting 1.000 down. On the other hand, ya know, Mets…
He has four at bats and has never hit!!!
Sanchez is only a slight improvement over Perez. And Narvaez is a slight improvement over both.
377 million should buy you a better team. Just saying.
Wow, thanks for that totally new perspective.
Oh look an upset Mets fan.
I mean, he’s not sustaining it, but Perez went 4-4 and now you wanna dump him?
Gotta dump somebody, to make changes when you’re SINKING in the standings.
If his career numbers weren’t so horrible, I think he’d stay. It’s interesting because he does hit relatively well in the minors.
Mets hoping to find lightning in a bottle with Sanchez. If he doesn’t work out, just DFA him
Does he still have that idiotic clause in his contract that forces them to pay him 5 million to give him a chance to break back into the major leagues?
Its not $5 million. Is only $1.5 mil, which is not unusual for players of this type. And its already established that the $$$ doesn’t really matter to Steve Cohen, anyway.
What is idiotic is that the Mets are even facing a deadline this soon. Who in the organization thought it was reasonable to give themselves only 10 days to evaluate whether he’s a major leaguer or not?