Mets’ Francisco Alvarez sets career best with latest caught stealing

Francisco Alvarez's caught stealing play during Monday's game against the Diamondbacks ended up being a career-best moment for the young backstop.

Oct 14, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; New York Mets pitcher Edwin Diaz (39) celebrates with catcher Francisco Alvarez (4) after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in game two of the NLCS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

After losing back-to-back one-run games during Sunday's doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals, the New York Mets were able to pick up a one-run victory of their own during their series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

New York snapped their two-game slide on Monday as they defeated the Diamondbacks 5-4 in the desert to get back to 10 games over .500 on the season. While the Mets did enter the bottom of the eighth inning with a 5-1 lead, Dedniel Núñez struggled in his season debut for the Mets by walking three batters in the inning, which resulted in Arizona scoring three runs to cut their deficit to one.

Edwin Díaz was able to lock down the Mets' victory in the bottom of the ninth inning, but he also had some help from his battery mate, Francisco Álvarez. After Alec Thomas led off the inning by reaching first base via a throwing error by Pete Alonso, Thomas quickly wanted to take advantage of Díaz's vulnerability of not being able to hold runners on.

Two pitches later, Thomas took off in an attempt to steal second, but Álvarez was able to throw him out thanks to an incredible tag by Francisco Lindor. With the tying run no longer on base, Díaz recorded the next two outs with ease to secure a dramatic one-run win for the Mets.

FRANCISCO LINDOR WITH THE INCREDIBLE TAG FOR THE CAUGHT STEALING! pic.twitter.com/UVeZZVMXt0
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 6, 2025

Álvarez's potential game-saving play was so incredible that it set a personal best for him. According to Sarah Langs, the 23-year-old's pop time of 1.82 seconds on the caught stealing of Thomas was his fastest pop time on throwing out a runner at second base of his career.

Francisco Alvarez's pop time was 1.82 seconds on the caught stealing in the 9th inning.

It was his fastest pop time on throwing out a runner stealing at second base in his career.

(h/t @slangsonsports) pic.twitter.com/rrr6wIsTzg
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) May 6, 2025

To put that pop time into perspective, Langs also noted that the average MLB catcher's pop time to second base is 2.0 seconds: as such, Álvarez certainly crossed some uncharted territory during his crucial play against the Diamondbacks.

This season, Mets catchers overall have been excellent at throwing out base stealers. After Monday's game, Álvarez has already thrown out three runners in the eight games he has started thus far, while Luis Torrens has caught six of the 12 runners this season trying to steal off of him.

It's been a great season defensively for both Álvarez and Torrens, and Monday's career-best caught stealing play executed by Álvarez is another example of just how dominant the Mets backstops have been in 2025.

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