The New York Mets have demoted catcher Fransisco Alvarez to Triple-A Syracuse, per Mike Puma of the NY Post. Alvarez was in his fourth MLB season with the Mets after being called up in late 2022. It seems like a pivotal moment for Alvarez’s career, both domestically and internationally.
Alvarez was one of the premier prospects in baseball as he rose through the Mets pipeline. He was signed out of Guatire, Venezuela, in the summer of 2018. At one point, Alvarez was the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, labeled as a five tool catcher with great ability to get on base. He made his MLB debut with the Mets as a September call-up in 2022 and impressed in five games. He did not make the Mets opening day roster in 2023, but was quickly called up on April 7, and remained in Queens for the entire season.
That rookie year, Alvarez broke the franchise record for home runs by a rookie catcher when he hit 25 over the course of 123 games. Alvarez showed flashes of his ability that season, but the Mets finished 75-87.
This year, Alvarez has taken a step back. His OPS plus has not been the 102 career high that it was last season, when the Mets had their miracle run to the National League Championship Series. This year, his OPS+ is an 89 and his OPS is a .652. The big factor in Alvarez’s decline has been his decrease in the ability to get extra-base hits. His batting average is just a percentage point lower than last year and his on-base percentage is 12 points higher. His slugging percentage is 80 points lower, leading to a decrease in total OPS of 58 points.
In his Major League career as a whole, Alvarez has not possessed the same strikeout to walk ratio that he did in the minors. His rookie year he struck out 110 times compared to just the 34 times that he walked. To put that in perspective, in his combined 2022 season with Double-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse, Alvarez walked 70 times and struck out 123 times.
Alvarez was not a member of Team Venezuela’s roster in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, as he did not have the MLB experience at the time. Going into this year, Alvarez was predicted by many to be one of the catchers on Venezuela’s roster, alongside longtime Venezuelan backstop Salvador Perez. Now, that remains in question. What does help Alvarez’s chances of making the team is the fact that when Venezuela took three catchers for the WBC in 2023, they took Perez, Robinson Chirinos, and Omar Narvaez. Chirinos is now retired and Narvaez is in Triple-A for the Houston Astros. However, he will have to compete with the likes of Willson Contreras and William Contreras, two of the league’s top catchers, for those positions.
Alvarez will look to recapture the pop in his bat that allowed him to hit 25 home runs in 2023, in what is hopefully a short stint in Syracuse before a long-term return to the MLB.
WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
Photo: New York Mets’ Francisco Alvarez in action during a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Saturday, June 21, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
