Mets planning to activate Johnny Monell on Tuesday

Triple-A C Johnny Monell is on his way to New York, and the Mets expect to activate him on Tuesday, the club announced on Twitter.

Monell, 29, was hitting .397/.455/.638 for Las Vegas, with four home runs, two doubles, and 15 RBI in 66 plate appearances spanning 17 games.

In his only other taste of big league action, Monell appeared in eight games for San Francisco in 2013.

The Mets signed Monell to a minor league deal during the offseason, and he hit well during Spring Training. However, the backup catcher job went to the incumbent, Anthony Recker.

According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, the Mets are not dealing with any unknown injuries and the plan is to carry three catchers.

Monell is not on the 40-man roster, so in addition to removing a player from the 25-man roster, the club will have to remove a player from the 40-man in order to activate Monell.

Thoughts:

It seems that Eric Campbell is the likely choice to get sent down for Monell, due to the fact that Daniel Murphy is currently playing third base and the club has a backup middle infielder in Ruben Tejada.

Adam Rubin suggested the Mets could also drop a reliever for the time being, but it would be kind of strange for them to be comfortable going with a six-man bullpen so soon after dropping from an eight-man pen to a seven-man pen.

Regarding the 40-man roster move that will need to be made, unless the Mets have a trade in the works that would export a player who’s currently on the 40-man, the obvious move would be to shift Jerry Blevins (broken forearm) to the 60-day disabled list.

Blevins landed on the 15-day disabled list two weeks ago, and he won’t get his cast off for another month. It’s fair to assume it will take him at least two weeks to rehab after his cast comes off, which would take him to the end of a potential 60-day DL stint.

Perhaps the Mets will throw everyone a curve and DFA Ruben Tejada in order to clear the roster spot, but that would leave them with Eric Campbell as their backup shortstop. Translation: don’t bet on it.

The Mets could also opt to shift Cesar Puello (back) to the 60-day DL, but it was reported over the weekend that he’s about to get cleared for baseball activity.

Looking down the road a bit, it’s anyone’s guess what the Mets will do to make room on the roster once David Wright returns -perhaps as early as this weekend.