Mets free agent bust continues to look worse as his replacement shines

When the New York Mets put their backup catcher Luis Torrens in the lineup, the team isn’t the way they used to be. The drop off from Francisco Alvarez to Torrens isn’t sciatica-inducing.

Torrens has brilliantly thrown out 73% of base runners while supplementing the bottom of the order with some big hits. In fact, as Tim Britton of The Athletic noted, he is now one extra-base hit shy of tying what Omar Narvaez did in his time with the Mets.

Torrens’ 8 extra base hits come from 5 doubles and 3 home runs in only 57 plate appearances. Omar Narvaez had bigger issues than a lack of power but for the sake of knowledge, he had 7 doubles and 2 home runs spanning 215 trips to the plate.

It’s these small moves where Mets POBO David Stearns has excelled

The Narvaez free agent signing wasn’t a horrific one to help bridge the gap to Alvarez. There was no issue with paying a veteran $8 million in 2023. The mistake was immediately seen when the deal included a $7 million option for 2024. The option was all in the hands of the player, too.

Narvaez was injured for a good chunk of 2023 and never seemed to fully recover. In a limited role with Alvarez surpassing him as the starter, Narvaez failed to make adjustments.

His biggest had to do with the rule changes. He went from throwing out 22% of base runners in 2022 to 12% in 2023. When the Mets released him in 2024, he was at only 6% for the season. The league average is 22%.

For $15 million, the Mets got barely anything from Narvaez on both sides of the ball. It was an all-too-familiar type of move for this organization. Narvaez would’ve fit in perfectly with many of those early 2000s Mets clubs that paid big bucks for players past their prime.

Hardly the lone savvy out of nowhere pickup by the Mets under Stearns, the additions along with the promotion of Jose Iglesias sparked something new in this ball club. It hasn’t all been peaches and cream, though. Bringing back Adam Ottavino hasn’t worked out nor has the choice of Jake Diekman as the lefty reliever. Better reactive than proactive in year one with the Mets, the trade for Torrens has overtaken the Narvaez signing by miles. Soon enough, he should pass him in extra-base hits, too.