{"id":123782,"date":"2025-06-22T22:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T22:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/123782\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T22:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T22:50:13","slug":"mets-send-struggling-catcher-francisco-alvarez-down-to-triple-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/123782\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets send struggling catcher Francisco Alvarez down to Triple-A"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Francisco Alvarez<\/a> was once billed as the next Mike Piazza, a power-hitting catcher who could do it all at the dish and behind it. But in his third major league season, his development seems to have plateaued.<\/p>\n

In a somewhat surprising move, the Mets<\/a> sent Alvarez back to the minor leagues Sunday, optioning him to Triple-A Syracuse and calling up catcher Hayden Senger to take his spot. After a few weeks of catching mistakes and inconsistent offensive results, the Mets felt it best to give the 23-year-old Venezuelan a chance to regain his footing with Triple-A pitching and get some instruction in a more controlled atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot an easy decision,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said Sunday at Citizens Bank Park ahead of the series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies. \u201cSomething that we don\u2019t take lightly when we\u2019re making these decisions. We had extensive conversations, but in the end we decided that it was best for him to go down to Triple-A to play every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the decision seemed curious to fans given that Alvarez went 2-for-5 with a home run<\/a> in Saturday\u2019s win. However, it was one game, and the homer came in the ninth inning when the Mets were already well ahead of the Phillies. In 11 games this month, he\u2019s hit .238 with a .709 OPS. For the season, he\u2019s hitting .223 with a .652 OPS.<\/p>\n

While the numbers themselves aren\u2019t exactly dismal, it\u2019s not what the Mets expect from Alvarez. There has been some obvious regression in some areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of potential there and when he\u2019s playing up to his potential, he\u2019s got a chance to be a pretty special player,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need him and we expect him to be back. But right now, we feel like it\u2019s best for him to go down there and get reps.\u201d<\/p>\n

After hitting 25 home runs as a rookie in 2023, Alvarez has struggled to repeat that feat. The backstop has never been a high-average hitter, but he\u2019s always been able to hit the ball hard and crush left-handed pitching, but he hasn\u2019t done that this year (.160 against left-handers).<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like there were a couple of games where it was like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s what he\u2019s supposed to look like,’\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cBut then he\u2019d go a couple of games where he\u2019s late with the fastball, and then he chases. So just looking for consistency here. Even though we gave him a chance here, if you\u2019re playing 3-4 games a week compared to having an opportunity to go play six, that\u2019s how you\u2019re going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last winter, Alvarez moved his offseason training from Miami to Atlanta, opting to go to the same facility as former\u00a0Mets DH J.D. Martinez. At Maven Baseball Lab, Alvarez completely overhauled his swing, changing \u201ceverything.\u201d The goal was to create a swing that would allow for more repeatable motion. He sought to improve his mechanics and his timing, trying to address a bad habit of transferring his weight to his front leg too soon in his swing.<\/p>\n

However, a new swing takes time to develop and repetition to master. The Mets had planned to give him plenty of reps in spring training games, but he broke his hamate bone in March, which required surgery and rehab. It left him without the at-bats needed to implement those offseason swing adjustments.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot trying to make excuses for the kid, but he\u2019s something that we also talked about,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the Mets wanted him to work on specific mechanical issues over the offseason. They put together a plan for him that he took to Maven. It was the timing of the injury that was detrimental. While he was on the injured list, Luis Torrens emerged as a stronger catcher on both sides of the plate, and Senger was impressive defensively. Torrens didn\u2019t perform as well offensively splitting time with Alvarez, but his expected numbers remain up this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, Louie continues to earn playing time,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cSo we\u2019re getting to a point where it\u2019s like 50-50 [playing time split]. Is that what\u2019s best for Alvy? Probably not at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarez improved his pop times and transfers this season, fixing a problem that has plagued him since he was in the minor leagues. But his framing and blocking haven\u2019t been as strong this season. The Mets know they can call up Senger without losing anything defensively.<\/p>\n

Alvarez wanted to make sure he would be playing every day in Triple-A, which the Mets assured him of. He took the news like a \u201cprofessional,\u201d doing more listening than talking. Player development isn\u2019t linear, and that\u2019s especially true for catchers. The club did what they thought would be best for a scuffling young player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Francisco Alvarez was once billed as the next Mike Piazza, a power-hitting catcher who could do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,3518,1347,359,101,3967,4,1690,61,2548,4203,3383],"class_list":{"0":"post-123782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-catcher","10":"tag-francisco-alvarez","11":"tag-hayden-senger","12":"tag-mets","13":"tag-minor-leagues","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-mets","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkmets","19":"tag-triple-a"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114729466243790711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}