"Your conscience will never let you rest."

"God bless it. I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings."

-- "Catch-22," Joseph Heller

On Thursday in Port St. Lucie, Fla., David Stearns was asked about not bringing back Jose Quintana or José Iglesias -- a pair of critical contributors to last year's NLCS team.

"We feel really good about our team," Stearns said. "We prepare for injuries. We feel like we have depth, and I'm excited to see what some of our other players, including some of our young players, would be able to do with that opportunity."

Stearns and the New York Mets don't have to wait long to test that excitement.

Still more than two weeks from Opening Day, New York has lost two of its top starting pitchers in Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, it's lost the presumed front-runner for its utility spot in Nick Madrigal, and now it's lost its starting catcher, Francisco Alvarez, for roughly the first month of the season.

In Stearns' first season in Queens, one of his greatest successes was quickly and consistently buttressing the Mets organization with quality depth. Players seldom discussed this time last year, such as Iglesias, became unexpected and significant parts of the team by the end of summer. We've covered this.

However, the loss of Alvarez is especially challenging for the Mets because it's a reminder of one spot their depth failed them in the first two months last season. Remember, the catcher's ligament tear in his thumb in April augured the Mets' woeful start to the season: The team went 17-28 during the time he missed, with Tomás Nido and Omar Narváez unable to provide serviceable depth.

It wasn't until June, when Stearns acquired Luis Torrens in a minor trade just before Alvarez returned, that the Mets resolidified the backstop. As well as Torrens played, it was Alvarez's return that really did it. The Mets' record when Alvarez started last season was 58-27, compared with 31-46 when he didn't. That's the difference between a 110-win team and a 65-win team, over 162. No, it isn't '72 Steve Carlton, but I did have to double-check.

And that's what happened during what was pretty clearly a frustrating offensive season for Alvarez, who dropped from 25 homers in 2023 to just 11 last season. Alvarez's defensive value manifested in less transparent ways. The Mets' ERA with him behind the plate (3.48) was nearly a run better than otherwise (4.36). Yes, take catcher ERA with a grain of salt, but maybe a smaller one here since New York didn't employ a personal catcher for any starters in 2024. (The possible exception here is that Alvarez missed May, the month in which the entirety of the Mets' bullpen imploded. It's a little difficult to pin down the correlation/causation meter there.)

Catching is not an area where the Mets have a readymade next man up. Without Manaea and Montas in the rotation, the Mets can still run a six-man rotation of starters with legitimate major-league experience. Without Madrigal as an infield reserve, they have several younger players to choose from as fill-ins. Without Alvarez, they have no third catcher on the 40-man roster, no prospect on the rise, and one other player with all of eight games of major-league time (Jakson Reetz). Catchers tend to hit the waiver wire late in spring, and there should be opportunities to add outside the organization.

What impressed those around the Mets so much in Stearns' first season was his ability to improve the team outside the traditional windows of acquisition (the offseason and the trade deadline). This is another early opportunity to prove it again.

Since I mentioned that each of the first two books I quoted from this season ("The Recognitions" and "The Master and Margarita") were top 10 novels for me, a couple of commenters asked for a complete list. So here it comes, slowly, over the next eight weeks. Just check the epigraphs.

Also, maybe we'll end up doing more than 10.

The 1998 Mets used a team-record eight catchers that season, though the position was largely solidified by a certain May trade. Before Mike Piazza arrived, which catcher started behind the plate Opening Day, and which catcher finished Opening Day with a walk-off base hit?

(I'll reply to the correct answers in the comments.)