Francisco Alvarez undergoes thumb surgery, Mets set return timetable
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez underwent surgery to repair a UCL injury on his left thumb on Tuesday, the team announced.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said that after speaking to the trainers and doctors “everything went as planned” with the procedure.
“Surgery went well, no issues there. Now we gotta get back to rehab and things like that,” Mendoza said on Tuesday from San Francisco.
The typical return to play from this type of surgery is about eight weeks, the team said.
Mendoza explained that once Alvarez is close to “80 percent with his strength as far as gripping things” is when he will begin to do more baseball activities.
“We’re looking at eight weeks because of the position he plays, obviously, and it’s the left thumb on the receiving [hand] as the catcher,” the skipper said. “So it’s one of those where we gotta be mindful and I know he’s gonna try to push it. But we gotta make sure we get him back healthy.”
To keep the young catcher from pushing things too much during his rehab and rushing back to action before he’s ready, Mendoza said the Mets are going to make Alvarez feel “a part of the team as much as possible” during this process so “he doesn’t feel like he’s not contributing to the team.”
Alvarez will rejoin the team when they return to New York this weekend.
“Whether it’s with meetings or with the energy that he brings, just being around the team [will] make him feel [that he’s] contributing, doing something here,” he said. “It’s one of those where all of us are going to have to talk to him every day and making sure that he doesn’t push it too much.”
Alvarez sustained the injury running the bases last Friday in Los Angeles.
"My reaction was bad. I was mad with myself … because it feels like really sad news to me," Alvarez said last week.
Alvarez underwent the same surgery third baseman Brett Baty had at the end of last season.
"He told me that I had to be patient," Alvarez said last week. "... Don’t be frustrated."
The 22-year-old was off to a hot start this season but has cooled at the plate in the last week. Entering Saturday's game, Alvarez was slashing .236/.288/.652 with one home run and eight RBI.
