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.

3) Sean Reid-Foley

Sean Reid-Foley has inched closer to getting designated for assignment but he remains a bit more distant than the two others on this list. Taking the loss in extra innings versus the San Francisco Giants and then nearly blowing a game versus the Arizona Diamondbacks should have SRF on notice. His inability to find the strike zone at times has been a huge issue. Despite the 2.25 ERA, he has allowed a bunch of unearned runs—5 against the Giants, in fact.

Once awesome strikeout numbers have fallen off in recent outings with walks taking over the narrative. While certainly in some danger, the Mets have opened up enough other roster spots where they can demote and promote fresher relief pitchers.

Reid-Foley has proven many of his doubters wrong, but some struggles of late could have the “I told you so” police coming out in full force.

For those curious, Jose Quintana was a consideration for this list. However, he has a few more spots to fall on the depth chart. First a move to the bullpen will need to take place. Secondly, suffering with him and seeing if they can get anything closer to the trade deadline is probably the wiser move. He has been good at times. Even a lesser Quintana is more valuable to other teams than a struggling reliever like Reid-Foley.