Mets' Francisco Alvarez: Avoiding surgery on ankle
The Mets announced Thursday that Alvarez has been diagnosed with a loose body in his right ankle but won't need surgery to address the injury, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports.
Alvarez, who hasn't played for Triple-A Syracuse since Aug. 23, will instead receive a pain-killing injection in the ankle with the hope of resuming baseball activities in 3-to-4 days. If the injection yields the desired effect and Alvarez responds well to workouts, he could slot back into the Triple-A lineup by mid-September. The time that Alvarez has missed in addition to his lackluster numbers at Syracuse since receiving a promotion from Double-A Binghamton in early July makes it unlikely that he'll get the call up to the Mets before the end of the season, even though the big club has received little production from catchers James McCann and Tomas Nido.
