What will the Mets catching depth look like a few weeks from now?
Meanwhile Francisco Lindor remains on track to return for Opening Day
What’s Up with the Mets? 🌴
The Mets trounced the Marlins in Port St. Lucie on Monday night by the score of 9-0 (Box)
LHP Zach Thornton—the Mets 15th ranked prospect—started and pitched well, firing three scoreless innings while striking out three and allowing just three baserunners.
Carson Benge had two hits including a triple, and drove in three runs
Craig Kimbrel and Devin Williams each threw scoreless innings in relief
Ronny Mauricio started at shortstop and contributed a pair of hits
Injury Updates 🏥
SS Francisco Lindor (Hamate bone surgery) is taking swings in the cage. President of Baseball Operations David Stearns told the media on Monday that Lindor remains on schedule to return prior to Opening Day, though he hedged that getting in game at-bats would be a prerequisite to being active on day 1
Roster Moves 💨
OF Nick Morabito optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Jonathan Pintaro optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Jack Wenninger reassigned to minor league camp
Monday, March 9:
Juan Soto (DOM): 0-for-4, BB, K
Mark Vientos (NCG): 1-for-4 2 K
Alex Carillo (MEX): 1 IP 0 ER 1 H 1 BB 2 K
Schedule | Standings | Scores
Spring Training Notables 👀
OF Carson Benge: 9-for-23, 3B, 4 RBI, BB, 4 R, .918 OPS
INF Ronny Mauricio: 6-for-21, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 3 R, .924 OPS
OF Tyrone Taylor: 5-for-18, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 BB, 5 R, 1.022 OPS
OF Cristian Pache: 9-for-16, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 R, 1.486 OPS
OF Mike Tauchman: 4-for-13, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 3 R, 1.269 OPS
C Austin Barnes: 4-for-12, 3 2B, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 2 R, 1.012 OPS
OF MJ Melendez: 4-for-11, 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 R, 1.364 OPS
INF/OF Brett Baty: 4-for-10, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R, 1.255 OPS
Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
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Today’s Game 🏝️
Match-up: Mets (7-5) vs Cardinals (9-6)
Where: Clover Park - Port St. Lucie, FL
Starters: LHP David Peterson (0-0, -.— ERA) vs. TBD
When: 1:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
The Mets have a lot of catchers in camp - how will they align their depth? ✍️
For well over a year, I’d been clamoring on this platform for the Mets to add to their organizational catching depth.
And in just a few weeks, for the first time in a long time, the club is going to have to make some real decisions in that department.
We all know Francisco Álvarez is this team’s starter behind the plate, and despite an inconsistent 2025, the club feels good about him resuming everyday duties, assuming he can stay healthy. His performance after being returned from the minor leagues last season— on both sides of the ball— was very promising thanks to a renewed approach at the plate. He posted a .921 OPS over his final 41 games of the season.
Luis Torrens is certainly a defense-first backup—which is totally fine—nobody controls the running game like he does, and he’s shown a knack for coming through with meaningful hits when given an opportunity.
One of the Mets bugaboos in 2025 was the lack of a legitimate option to fill in behind these two guys, and when both were forced to miss time for various reasons, career minor leaguer Hayden Senger was suddenly thrust into meaningful playing time—in which he slashed just .181/.221/.194.
Former first-round pick Kevin Parada has struggled through four minor league campaigns, so he isn’t a top-of-the-depth-chart option for the Mets at this point in time.
Minor league catching depth is not a sexy topic to bring to the forefront, but it’s something— among others— that so evidently bit this team in the rear end last year. To that end, I was irrationally excited when the Mets brought in Austin Barnes and Ben Rortvedt this winter.
Obviously, neither of them is going to grab headlines. But they bring more than 800 combined Major League starts behind the plate, and both would provide the type of reliable presence the Mets could certainly use in a pinch to help handle the pitching staff.
That said, in just a couple of weeks, the Mets are going to have a serious roster crunch at the catcher position.
So who is headed to Syracuse? And before we can get too deep into that, there are several complications at play.
For starters, of the four options I’ve already mentioned, only Senger and Rortvedt are on the 40-man roster. But Rortvedt is out of options, so he’d need to be DFA’d and outrighted to Triple-A, and it’s far from a sure thing that another team wouldn’t be interested. The Mets could try and trade Rortvedt for another depth piece in that scenario, especially if they see his path narrowing, but that would be the best possible outcome if he doesn’t want to take a minor league assignment.
There’s also a high likelihood that the Mets will need spaces on their 40-man roster. If Carson Benge does indeed make the team out of camp, the team will need to open a spot for him. Fellow outfielder Mike Tauchman is also a candidate to be added to the Major League roster, as is reliever Craig Kimbrel. The Mets have already moved all of their 60-day injured list candidates out, so that eliminates any of the easy 40-man roster moves the Mets can make. The Mets could conceivably cut Vidal Brujan if Francisco Lindor is ready to go, but we might not know that until the last minute.
Senger does have options, so it feels like a safe bet he’ll be one of the catchers in Syracuse despite his limited production a season ago.
I’m positive the Mets want to keep at least one of their veteran backstops in the organization in Triple-A, and to me Barnes stands out as the most realistic given Rortvedt’s roster status. He’s had a nice camp, he’s aware of what’s happened here in the past, and could see a minor league assignment as an opportunity to get back to the big leagues later this summer.
If the Mets are able to assemble a catching duo in Syracuse of Barnes and Senger, that genuinely makes me curious about Parada’s future.
Yes, the bust label has already been thrown around with frequency when it comes to the Georgia Tech product, but I’d imagine the Mets would have some degree of hesitancy to let him go altogether right now.
But they’re also very high on Chris Suero and Ronald Hernandez, who are projected to handle the catching duties in Double-A Binghamton, and sending Parada back there feels far-fetched.
To me, the worst-case scenario here feels like Senger and Parada again being the only catchers a level away from the Major League team, and it’s imperative that the Mets find a way to keep a proven veteran even if it requires some creative maneuvering.
As is the case with all of the roster questions we’ve been exploring here lately, these are questions we’ll have answers to very shortly.
I’m not sure Torrens is a lock. Is he out of options? There was a reason a plethora of catchers were brought into ST this season. Alvy is the man of course but his injury history is a big concern. We have been waiting to get a full year from him since his rookie year and it’s funny that he’s still only 24 and has been here already for 4 seasons. Most catchers are starting their careers at this age so let’s hope Alvy can crush the injury moniker as the Mets need to get the production he teased us all with almost half a decade ago. Torrens probably will be the back up but Stearns wanted to see if there were other options out there. To me Suero looks like the guy. He also plays the outfield and having him up here as a third catcher is gonna be sweet soon. I doubt Barnes and Rortvedt take minor league demotions unless they don’t get picked up elsewhere.