The next 3 Mets players who could be DFA'd after the team parts with Omar Narvaez

The impossible happened on Friday. Only one day into the rehab assignment for Francisco Alvarez, the New York Mets cut Omar Narvaez from the roster. His unbelievably bad offensive performance coupled with how beatable he was on the base paths gave them no choice but to DFA the veteran catcher.

A slew of Mets roster moves tied to this DFA were more about making the club more complete. Jose Iglesias instead of Brett Baty gives them a definitive starting third baseman with Mark Vientos and an actual middle infielder on the team moving forward. Christian Scott, as much as he deserves to be here, isn’t needed because of the upcoming off-days

We move on and prepare for more bold roster moves as needed. Included could be any of these three players getting designated for assignment next.

1) Adrian Houser

The Mets player everyone wants to see gone, Adrian Houser was a failure as the team’s fifth starter. Will he have better luck as a reliever? We haven’t seen him in action enough in relief to invest in either direction. They've managed to open some room for him to be their long-man. As long as he doesn’t completely crater in any upcoming games, Houser might be able to finesse his way into sticking around a little longer.

Houser pitched two scoreless frames for the Mets in relief in their Thursday win after tossing 4 in a victory against the San Francisco Giants in their dramatic walk-of victory where Narvaez had the walk-off hit. Still walking a ton of batters even when his innings have been minimized, the only thing Houser has going for him is the ability to go a whole lot of innings as needed.

His ERA remains a preposterously ugly 7.01 and yet the 4.89 FIP seems to indicate some bad luck—or at least that’s the spin his agent could put on things if he doesn’t massively improve. Finding the strike zone has been his biggest issue thus far with 3 hit batters in the early going mixed in with all of those walks. Houser combined to hit 3 batters in 2022 and 2023.

With so many others struggling in the bullpen, the leash loosens on Houser. Partly a result of his own failings, the bullpen was used way too much in the first month of the season and we’re seeing the toll it took. It’s up to Houser to help clean up some of the mess created.