Buck Showalter's quote about Francisco Alvarez should have Mets fans concerned

The New York Mets and their poor injury luck continued as Omar Narvaez was placed on the IL with an injury that should sideline him for eight weeks. The Mets had two options when looking at replacing Narvaez.

First, and what I expected, was just call up Michael Perez to fill in as the backup and have Tomas Nido get a bulk of the starts. This would be an underwhelming decision, but with Francisco Alvarez seemingly not ready to catch at a big league level, it's making the most of what the Mets had.

The other option was to call up one of the top prospects in baseball, Francisco Alvarez, to take the reigns and see if he can run with it. The Mets went with this option, but it doesn't sound like it'll be to the extent I was expecting.

Buck Showalter's quote about NY Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez should have fans concerned

Alvarez is up with the team ahead of their home opener against the Marlins. Seeing Alvarez's name absent from the lineup isn't shocking, but what Buck had to say about the Mets top prospect was.

From this quote, it sounds like Francisco Alvarez is going to be a backup catcher. He'll probably catch day games after night games, while Tomas Nido starts a majority of the time. This is, in my opinion, a mistake.

If Alvarez is going to be with the team, he needs to be in the lineup as much as possible. As a catcher he's going to get his days off, but he should be playing either as the catcher or as the DH, five or six times per week. Anything less than that would be stunting his development.

If the Mets thought Nido was a capable starter, they should've just brought Michael Perez up. Perez, like Nido, is not a good hitter, but clearly the Mets think they'll be fine with a bad hitter catching games. Perez is a better defender than Alvarez, so if that's their priority he should be here.

I appreciate Buck saying there's a lot for Alvarez to learn as a backup, and there is, but this isn't football. You need reps to improve in baseball. Alvarez sitting on the bench a majority of the time will not help him improve more than playing every day in Syracuse would.

If the Mets think he's ready to be a big leaguer right now, he needs to start. If they think his glove isn't ready, keep him in the minors. That's why they signed Narvaez to begin with. Don't reverse course now.