The eye-catching reasons Mets still believe in Francisco Alvarez

The New York Mets surprised everyone midway through last season when they sent their young catcher, Francisco Alvarez, down to Triple-A Syracuse.

But when Alvarez came back, it was clear the detour had helped him. And in part because of that, the Mets are still fully committed to Alvarez's future as their catcher.

In a new article on Saturday, MLB.com's Mike Petriello wrote that Alvarez is one of seven hitters he's eying to break out in a big way in 2026.

He actually pointed out positives both in Alvarez's bat and his glove, including one statistic that overlaps positively with Juan Soto.

Alvarez is also simply still very young.

"Once the top prospect in baseball, Alvarez struggled so badly last year that the New York tabloids were screaming for his departure even before the Mets actually did send him back to Triple-A in June," Petriello writes. "By that time, he was hitting a mere .236/.319/.333 and frustrating Mets fans with repeated defensive issues. Entering his fifth Major League season, he still hasn’t established himself in the way that the prospect hype would have projected. But at 24, he’s essentially the same age as Jacob Wilson and Colson Montgomery, two of last year’s top rookies; he’s still so young. Upon his return, he was a top-15 second-half hitter, at least among those with as many plate appearances as he had. His line looked eerily like that of Juan Soto’s – in half as many times to the plate, it should be noted."

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Petriello goes on to point out that Alvarez made positive changes to his swing that seemed to contribute to his improvement.

He also got better defensively with some changes.

"We’re in on that, but there’s more to it here," Petriello writes. "For all the focus on his bat, the defensive problems were real, as Alvarez’s fielding declined from +11 runs to +2 to a very poor minus-6, as his framing and blocking each declined. Lost, somewhat, in the 12 homers and 1.043 OPS he posted in Syracuse was the work he did with catching coach J.P. Arencibia on his pre-pitch footwork setup – work that Arencibia claimed had 'fixed' the issue after just two weeks."

Petriello finished with this line: "There's still star potential here."

The Mets know it, too. Look out.

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