Francisco Alvarez’s trademark jovial energy and high-octane passion should have taken a significant hit this season with seemingly everything in the baseball universe working against him.
The New York Mets’ 23-year-old catcher was coming off a significant sophomore slump last year, and his hope of deploying a brand-new approach at the plate in 2025 was put on the back burner when he fractured his hand in spring training — an injury that required surgery and held him out until late April.
When he did make it back, he was lost at the plate. In 35 games, he batted .236 with a .652 OPS and just three home runs — a far cry from the rookie who socked 25 in 2023. It warranted a demotion to Triple-A in mid-June in hopes of figuring it out, which he appeared to do after a month. From July 21 to Aug. 17 (21 games), he slashed .323/.408/.645 with four home runs and 13 RBI.
But then the injury bug returned.
He sprained the UCL in his right thumb, but he somehow managed to get ahead of schedule and get into a minor-league rehab game just over a week after the injury. But in his first game with Syracuse, he was hit in the hand and broke his left pinky.
He only missed two-and-a-half weeks, playing through the pain and the subsequent dip in production that comes with playing hurt — especially at a premium position like catcher. Yet his energy never wavered, his mood never sulked, which could have been an understandable result of a young player who had been sent back down to the minors earlier in the season and then stuck on the injury shelf.
“His attitude’s been so impressive through all this,” pitcher Clay Holmes told amNewYork. “Through the option earlier this year, how he handled that. How’ he’s handled the injuries and all that stuff. To still have that enthusiastic kind of personality and be himself, that’s not easy. It’s easy to feel sorry about yourself, wonder why, and ask those questions.
“But, man, he shows up as the same guy, and it’s like nothing really fazes him… There’s something different about him. I don’t know if he doesn’t feel much or just is able to block out the pain, but he’s still been amazing. I think a lot of us are asking the same question: How are you doing this?”
On Tuesday night, he managed to muster what could be the first of several season-saving moments for the Mets at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.
Following a five-run comeback and in the bottom of the eighth of a 7-7 game, Alvarez lifted a two-run home run off reliever Caleb Thielbar to lift the Mets to a 9-7 game and momentarily back into the third and final National League Wild Card spot.
The theatrics, the vitality were back, and deservedly so for a player who very well could have had his mojo sapped months ago. Alvarez stopped before the first-base bag, put his hands on his helmet, and pumped his fists. He bounced around the bases, flexed his bicep as he rounded third, skipped across home plate, and bounded into the dugout.
“I just said ‘let’s go!'” Alvarez recalled. “I was super excited for the moment, obviously.”
Finally, a pulse. These Mets aren’t dead yet, despite facing one of the more heinous collapses in recent MLB lore.
Consider Alvarez the defibrillator.
“That’s who he is,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We feed off that. Guys love it. As a team, we need that. We need that spark, we need that energy. Not only when we’re getting big hits, just overall.
“He’s special.”
For more on Francisco Alvarez and the Mets, visit AMNY.com
