The Mets are maintaining a clear message on Francisco Alvarez’s future.
Either the organization’s top prospect will be in the majors for the 2023 season because both his power bat and defense behind the plate are ready or he’ll be in Triple-A honing his defensive game.
“We want to wait for the complete package to be there,” Mets general manager Billy Eppler said this weekend from Port St. Lucie, FL. “If Francisco is on our club, if he’s on our team, or if he shows up, we want to make sure we can catch him because the long-term trajectory for this young man is to be able to catch.”
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There remains little question about whether or not his bat is ready for the majors. Alvarez looks poised to become one of the best power-hitting catchers in the game. It’s his defense, however, that remains the concern and factor that could potentially withhold the 21-year-old from being in the majors come Opening Day.
Alvarez has previously stated that he’ll “100%” be on the Mets’ Opening Day roster. Still, Eppler brought in veteran backstop Omar Narvaez to work alongside Tomas Nido in what appears to be the platoon that the young slugger will need to crack to make the team.
As of now, there’s no other place within the roster he could slot in — most notably at the designated hitter spot. The Mets enter spring training with numerous options to settle the lingering issues of where DH production will come from.
Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf are getting another chance while Tommy Pham was brought in as a fourth outfielder who also could get some DH at-bats given his career .843 OPS against left-handers. Eduardo Escobar and Brett Baty could also see at-bats, depending on who plays third base.
“It would not be a pure DH situation,” Eppler said of Alvarez. “You always put a caveat on things or an asterisk that if circumstances present themselves — for some reason something happened to Francisco and he wouldn’t be able to catch — but that’s speaking in hypotheticals.”
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