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Francisco Alvarez takes big swings, both with his bat and in charting goals.
Coming off an underwhelming offensive season, the young Mets catcher has pledged he will be a better and more selective hitter in 2025.
“I’m working on a lot of things in my hitting. … I have changed a lot of things,” Alvarez said last weekend at the fanfest at Citi Field. “So I’m going to have more plate discipline, and I’m going to have better numbers, too.”
Alvarez arrived in the major leagues for good in 2023 with a minor league reputation as a mighty bat and questionable glove.
As it has turned out, his defense behind the plate has been terrific — working well with pitchers and ranking ninth last season in catcher framing runs despite missing significant time — while his swing has run hot and cold.
In 2023, he did not hit for average (.209) but compensated by slugging 25 home runs in 123 games. In 2024, the contact and average issues remained while the power (11 homers in 100 games) regressed.
It is possible Alvarez was compromised by a torn ligament in his left thumb that cost him seven weeks of the season, but Alvarez reiterated Saturday that his thumb was not to blame for his offensive output.
Regardless of the source of his struggles in a year that he finished with a .710 OPS, the 23-year-old is confident his third extended season in Queens will be his breakout campaign.
“I learned a lot from last year, so it’s going to be way different this year,” said Alvarez, who will have to perform better against breaking pitches.
Last season, Alvarez crushed fastballs and was OK against offspeed pitches. He was exposed, though, by breaking balls, against which he hit .159 and swung and missed 35.9 percent of the time.
He was particularly weak against sliders, and it is no mystery that he saw a slider 22.4 percent of the time in 2023 and 27.8 percent of the time in 2024.
Despite that, Alvarez, swings hard — hitting coach Eric Chavez would like him to be more controlled at the plate — has drawn walks and is in the middle of the pack in terms of chasing pitches outside the strike zone.
Plans for improving his plate discipline might involve identifying and laying off the kinds of breaking pitches he did not hit well.
There might not be a better mentor in baseball for hitters learning which pitches to attack than new Met Juan Soto, whom Alvarez surely will lean on.
But if Alvarez wants help from another Mets catcher with serious power, he need not look far.
“He’s got a lot of enthusiasm. He’s a special talent,” Mike Piazza said of Alvarez. “He’s got a lot of power. Just the only critique for me, I think, is just to be a little bit more plate-disciplined. I think we’ve seen some hitters — and I was guilty of it myself … it’s good to be aggressive. There’s guys that when they get that first fastball, they’re always hunting for it.
“But I think there’s times where, if the pitcher is throwing well, they could use that against you. And I think there’s times where you have to kind of shrink your strike zone a little bit and not stretch it, especially with two strikes. But again, I think he’s still young.”
In a lineup that at least today does not have Pete Alonso and boasts just Mark Vientos and the switch-hitting Francisco Lindor as power threats from the right side, Alvarez looms as a wild card.
If the former No. 1 prospect in all of baseball develops into the hitter the club envisioned, the Mets’ order would look much more intimidating.
Perhaps 2025 is the season he fulfills that promise and takes steps at the plate.
“He’s going to have to mature,” Piazza said, “because this game has a funny way of adjusting to you.”
