Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
New York Mets Star Alvarez Doing Historic Things with Power at the Plate
The legend of New York Mets catcher Francisco Álvarez seems to grow with every game.
The catch is that he’s only played 43 games.
Álvarez is doing things that are incomparable at this point in his career. Technically, he’s still considered a prospect by publications like Baseball America. But that won’t last much longer.
He’ll graduate soon. And he has a full-time job with the Mets.
Álvarez hit his 12th home run of the season on Saturday, a 5-1 victory for the Mets.
Álvarez is tied for the lead among MLB catchers for home runs this season. Here’s the catch:
Álvarez had 136 at-bats at the time he tied for the lead. The co-leaders were Kansas City’s Salvador Pérez (227 at-bats) and Atlanta’s Sean Murphy (184 at-bats).
He now has 140 at-bats, and with 12 home runs he’s hitting one every 11.7 at-bats.
Plus, there's this:
But it gets better. There’s more than three months left in the season, which gives Álvarez plenty of time to catch up with the record for most home runs in a season for an age-21 catcher.
That’s some pretty rare air, per MLB.com.
Johnny Bench, who holds the record at 26, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
It’s a welcome dose of power for the Mets, who are without first baseman and home run leader Pete Alonso due to injury. He’s hit 22. Next on the team list is shortstop Francisco Lindor, who has 12 home runs.
Alvarez has been building toward this for some time after signing as an international free agent with the Mets in the summer of 2018. He worked his way through the Mets system, getting an MLB Futures Game bid in 2021 and 2022 while finally reaching Triple-A Syracuse last season,
He lasted just four games with Syracuse this season before his call-up.
Entering this week he’s slashing .243/.293/.543/.836 with six doubles and 25 RBI.
But it’s the home runs, it’s the power, that’s taking the Mets by storm.
