PORT ST. LUCIE — Francisco Alvarez was again in Mets camp Wednesday following surgical procedure to take away the fractured hamate bone in his left hand.
And the catcher mentioned he was pissed off that he would miss time attributable to a hand harm for a second straight season, though he hopes to be swinging a bat once more in three weeks and again within the lineup in six to eight weeks.
“My goal is to make it [back] as quick as possible,” Alvarez mentioned.
A 12 months in the past, Alvarez was sidelined for practically two months with a torn ligament in his left thumb suffered on April 19, a part of a disappointing second season.
“It’s hard to lose time during the season,” Alvarez mentioned within the Clover Park clubhouse Wednesday. “It’s not good. I’m working the whole offseason to try to be healthy and that happened. It’s hard for my mind. It’s hard for me. But I’ve got to keep going.”
Alvarez suffered the harm on a swing and mentioned he “felt a little pop.”
“I knew something bad had happened,” mentioned Alvarez, who added he couldn’t grip the bat along with his left hand after the break.
In Alvarez’s absence, Luis Torrens is predicted to fill in, whereas the Mets may look so as to add a backup catcher as soon as rosters are trimmed down later within the spring.
However they’re relying on the 23-year-old’s energy to return to 2023 type.
“It’s on me,” Alvarez mentioned of his comeback from the harm. “If my body takes more time than normal [to recover], then maybe it takes eight weeks. But it’s on me. If I feel comfortable, if I feel good, I can move quicker.”
Alvarez was slumping final 12 months even earlier than the thumb harm, with a .652 OPS in his first 16 video games. He had an up-and-down remainder of the common season after his mid-June return.
Although Alvarez mentioned the thumb harm didn’t impression his effectiveness final season, he’s ready to see how he rebounds from this one.
“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Alvarez mentioned. “It’s a quick recovery. I don’t think I’m going to lose strength in my hand. I’m very strong.”
Paul Blackburn pitched 4 good innings for the Mets with two strikeouts of their 2-0 exhibition victory over the Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla.
The precise-hander, who’s vying for a rotation spot, favored that he may use all of his six pitches after specializing in his sinker and sweeper in his earlier look, by which he struggled.
“I can’t do that with how my stuff is,” Blackburn mentioned. “I have got to pitch and keep guys off balance and I feel like we kind of got back on that track today.”
Blackburn, Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill are the candidates for 2 spots within the five-man rotation to start the season.
