The Mets are telling teams theyre open to dealing , Mike Puma of the New York Post. Its unclear whether any clubs are interested in Vasily Ponomarev Jersey the left-handed hitting catcher, although the Mets would very likely have to pay down some portion of his contract to facilitate a move. Its the second straight offseason in which New York is looking to move a veteran catcher fairly early into a free agent deal. The Mets surprisingly guaranteed Narvez $15MM over two seasons. He made $8MM last year and had a $7MM player option for 2024. The Narvez pickup led the Mets to cut bait on two seasons into a four-year, $40MM pact. New York paid all but $5MM of the $24MM remaining on McCanns deal to offload him to the Orioles. The Narvez signing wasnt as costly as the McCann acquisition. It started similarly poorly, however. Narvez suffered a significant strain of his left calf within the seasons first two weeks. He was sidelined into June. By the time he returned, rookie had taken over as the starter. Narvez was pushed into a depth role and didnt perform well. In 49 games, Narvez hit .211/.283/.297 with a pair of home runs. Thats on the heels of a similarly underwhelming .206/.292/.305 line in 296 plate appearances for the Brewers in 2022. Narvez had a solid 21 campaign (.266/.342/.402 over 445 trips to the plate) but has been a well below-average hitter in three of the past four seasons. Its a notable step back from 2017-19, when Narvez was somewhat quietly one of the better offensive catchers in MLB. To his credit, the eight-year veteran has generally improved behind the plate as his numbers at the dish have regre sed. Statcast graded Narvez as an above-average pitch framer each season from 2020-22. That reflected a seemingly concerted effort to improve his receiving after being traded from the Mariners to Milwaukee going into the 2020 season. Narvez has never had a great throwing arm, though, which opponents exploited with more favorable baserunning rules last year. He threw out only six of 52 stolen base attempts, an 11.5% succe s rate that was well off the 19.8% league average. Between the calf injury and a replacement-level performance, Narvez had an easy decision to exercise his player option. While his path to playing time in Queens is limited, he wouldnt have found a $7MM contract if he returned to free agency. Its hard to envision another team taking the full salary in trade either, but the Mets havent had many qualms about paying down contracts. Theyve done so with back-of-the-roster players like McCann and and in blockbuster transactions involving and . President of baseball operations David Stearns wasnt involved in the decision to sign Narvez, although hes familiar with the player from their time in Milwaukee. One of Stearns first moves with the Mets was to claim off waivers from the Blue Jays. He joins lvarez and Narvez as the three catchers on the 40-man roster. , who has played parts of seven MLB seasons as a Met, remains in the organization after being outrighted in June (a move that coincided with Narvezs return from the calf strain). Nido hit .281/.336/.393 in 39 games at Triple-A Syracuse after clearing waivers. Hell make $2.1MM next season as part of a two-year deal he signed to avoid arbitration last offseason. NHL Pittsburgh Penguins Jersey