Tomás Nido designated for assignment; Omar Narváez reinstated from injured list

After weeks of speculation for how the Mets would handle the catching situation when all three catchers were healthy, the Mets designated Tomás Nido for assignment and reinstated Omar Narváez from the injured list. Narváez and Francisco Álvarez will share the catching duties for the remainder of the season.

Nido made his debut with the Mets in 2017, and has been the Mets’ primary backup since 2019. This past offseason, the Mets signed Nido to a two-year contract that bought out his remaining years of arbitration for $1.6 and $2.1 million, respectively. Nido, a glove-first player, is widely regarded as one of the best defenders in baseball, and had been a solid backup for the Mets.

Things got weird this offseason when, after signing Nido, the Mets brought in Narváez on a one-year deal (with a second year player option) of his own. This signaled that the Mets did not have confidence in Álvarez’s 2022 performance, which looking back is even sillier than it seemed then, as Álvarez has been, defensively, much better than advertised, and has come through with some big hits and shown real power thus far this season.

Álvarez has both the support of the fans and the pitching staff, and so it seemed unlikely that the Mets would send him back down to Triple-A, as he had nothing left to prove there. With Narváez’s return imminent, it seemed likely that the Mets would attempt to trade either Nido or Narváez and, according to Mike Puma, the Mets are expected to work out a trade for Nido, though it seems logical that the trade value for Nido might be hampered by the over $2 million left on his contract.

The signing of both Nido and Narváez will remain one of the more perplexing moves that of the Billy Eppler era thus far.

We wish Nido well, wherever he winds up.