{"id":54642,"date":"2025-05-25T23:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T23:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/54642\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T23:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T23:07:08","slug":"has-mets-luis-torrens-taken-the-starting-catchers-job-carlos-mendoza-reveals-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/54642\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Mets\u2019 Luis Torrens taken the starting catcher\u2019s job? Carlos Mendoza reveals answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 For the first time since coming off the injured list on April 25, catcher Francisco Alvarez<\/a> is not in the Mets<\/a>\u2019 lineup in consecutive games.<\/p>\n

Alvarez\u2019s struggles this season have been highlighted in his last eight games. He\u2019s 2-for-25 (.080) in that span with a double, four walks and nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his backup, Luis Torrens<\/a>, has been a steady presence anytime he\u2019s in the lineup, but especially in his last six games. Torrens is 6-for-15 (.400) in that span with three extra-base hits \u2014 the same number of extra-base hits Alvarez has all season.<\/p>\n

Is this a demotion for Alvarez?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot necessarily,\u201d Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Sunday. \u201cSince (Alvarez) got back, I\u2019ve been saying it, the balance, right? We\u2019ve been talking about the balance, and that they both were going to play. I thought that today was a good opportunity for Luis to go back-to-back. Hopefully, he goes out there and has a good game, but there\u2019s really good chance that (Alvarez) plays tomorrow regardless of what happens today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torrens also started in Saturday\u2019s 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/a> That decision was easier for Mendoza to explain since Friday\u2019s 13-inning slog<\/a> went more than four hours, not including a 98-minute rain delay.<\/p>\n

Mendoza calls the difficulty of having to manage two good catchers \u201ca good problem.\u201d He also claims that after speaking with Alvarez about his decision on Saturday night, the young catcher was more than happy to yield to his backup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to him last night and I told him,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe was (like), \u2018Whatever the team needs, I\u2019ll be ready to go. I\u2019m going to be out there working hard and whenever you need me, I\u2019ll be ready.\u2019<\/p>\n

Since breaking out in 2023, leading all big league catchers with 25 home runs (minimum 400 plate appearances), Alvarez has struggled getting his footing. In 120 games beginning in 2024, he\u2019s batting .236\/.310\/.385 with a 99 OPS+, which is just below league average (100 OPS+).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Torrens has enhanced the team\u2019s defensive presence behind the plate and is steady with the bat. In 77 games since joining the Mets via trade from the Yankees last May, he\u2019s outhit Alvarez across the board, batting .244\/.314\/.398 with a 103 OPS+.<\/p>\n

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.<\/p>\n

Manny G\u00f3mez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 For the first time since coming off the injured list on April 25, catcher Francisco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[2514,5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,2515],"class_list":{"0":"post-54642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-2514","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkmets","16":"tag-wspix"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114570988449685546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}