New York Mets Prospect Francisco Alvarez Ready to Contribute in Battle for NL East
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ATLANTA - After Triple-A Syracuse's season ended, Francisco Alvarez and his parents began a long drive down south to Miami on Thursday night.
It was during this car ride, while the Alvarez family was in Greenville, South Carolina, that the Mets' top prospect received a phone call from director of player development Kevin Howard telling him he was being called up to the major leagues.
“I always had the hope that I’d get called up because I know I can come out here and help the team win,” Alvarez said through the team interpreter prior to Mets-Braves series opener on Friday night. “I never lost hope and that’s the best thing about it.”
With Darin Ruf landing on the IL with a neck strain, Alvarez, a 20-year-old catcher, is coming up to serve as a right-handed hitting DH. His big-league debut will come on Friday in the Mets' biggest series of the season against the Braves in a battle for first place in the NL East.
“I’m not going to do anything different. I’m just here to help the team win and just to be able to help them as much as I can,” Alvarez said.
When asked if he thinks he can earn a spot on the Mets' postseason roster in the final six regular season games, Alvarez was fairly confident.
“Yeah, I think so," he said.
Mets brass felt it was the right time to bring up Alvarez, despite thrusting him into a high pressure situation for his first big-league action. The organization believes he has the mental makeup to handle it.
“It’s something that we talked about, with Buck (Showalter), the major league coaching staff, major league operations and our player development personnel. We source that and everybody was in favor of this one," said general manager Billy Eppler of the decision to bring up Alvarez in a heated division race.
"Since Francisco came back from his little ankle injury, and after that treatment, he has put up some of the numbers he was accustomed to. The opportunity came and here he is."
"We got into a circumstance here where we had a need. He has been checking the boxes developmentally on what we need, so we're going to give him the opportunity."
Alvarez slugged 27 home runs, drove in 78 RBIs and posted a .885 OPS across 112 games between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse this season. Now, he will get a chance to show what he can do in the Mets' most pivotal point in the 2022 campaign.
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