NEW YORK -- When the Mets recalled catcher Francisco Alvarez from Triple-A Syracuse on Monday, team officials described a player who had not merely accepted the challenge of his midsummer demotion to the Minors, but embraced it. The player who returned to Queens, they implied, was legitimately different.
In his first chance to prove them right, Alvarez hit a crucial double to the right-field fence in the eighth inning Monday, strengthening the go-ahead rally in a 7-5 Mets win over the Angels at Citi Field.
“We all wanted him here,” said Alvarez’s longtime friend and teammate Brett Baty. “For him to come back and have an impact like that in the game was huge for us.”
Alvarez finished 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored for the Mets, who also received significant contributions from Juan Soto (a game-tying two-run single in the seventh) and Baty (a two-run homer in the fourth, as well as a walk to spark the go-ahead rally in the eighth).
But it was Alvarez whose performance felt most symbolic. When Alvarez approached home for his first plate appearance, a nearly sold-out Citi Field crowd rose to offer him a standing ovation. Alvarez grounded to second in that at-bat but didn’t make another out the rest of the night.
Following Baty’s walk in the eighth, Alvarez boomed a fly ball to right field, where Chris Taylor caught up with it but couldn’t corral it. The next batter, Ronny Mauricio, hit a ground ball to third. Despite snaring it with the infield in, Yoán Moncada fired well wide of home to allow the go-ahead run to score.
“It felt really good just because of all the struggles that I had earlier in the season,” Alvarez said through an interpreter, referencing the fan reaction at Citi Field. “The way that they’ve kept supporting me and the way that they received me today through all the hard work that I’ve been putting in, it felt really special to get that reception from the fans.”
“It meant something to him,” added manager Carlos Mendoza. “It meant something for all of us.”
For Alvarez, this has been an emotional few weeks. When the Mets optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse on June 22, president of baseball operations David Stearns expected Alvarez to take the 72 hours he was allowed to report. Had the catcher requested it, Stearns would have given him extra time on top of that. Instead, Alvarez reported promptly. He hit his first home run in his fourth game at Syracuse, then another the day after that, and another the day after that.
From July 11-20, Alvarez hit seven homers in six games. Toward the end of that run, Mets officials began discussing whether to reverse the demotion. They considered it but wanted to be sure. When Alvarez hit four homers over the weekend, they became certain.
So it was that Alvarez returned to the Mets on Monday, batting eighth. In his mind, he is a changed player, both physically and mentally. Not only do team officials hope that is true, they have reason to believe it.
“I’ve seen this go both ways,” Stearns said. “I’ve seen players sulk and ask, ‘Why is this happening? Why me?’ And I’ve seen players turn the corner and look to work with the instructors in a less pressurized environment. And from Day 1 when Alvy was there, that’s what he did. He worked extremely hard.”
On the day the Mets sent Alvarez to Syracuse, he was batting .236/.319/.333 over 35 games, which translated to a career-low .652 OPS. He was a shadow of the promising young power threat he had proven to be in 2023, when he clubbed 25 home runs as a 21-year-old. An offseason swing change designed to help him use the whole field resulted mostly in the degradation of his power. The tool that was his calling card as a prospect had disappeared.
Beyond that, Mets officials noticed Alvarez’s defense -- a pleasant surprise during the early years of his career -- diminishing as well. His blocking and receiving suffered. He was doing little to help the team. So the Mets made the difficult decision to send Alvarez to Syracuse, where he hadn’t played as a healthy catcher since the opening days of the 2023 season.
“I think it was like, all right, reality,” Mendoza said. “‘I’m back in the Minor Leagues. What do I need to do now to get back up there?’”
What Alvarez did was mash, batting .299/.397/.836 over his 19-game stay in the Minors. More than that, he demonstrated visible improvement in his defensive skills, which opened the eyes of team officials.
“I learned how to be patient,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “I just continued to work hard, continued to do what I needed to do, and just put in the time to eventually get back to the big leagues.”
“This happened faster than I would have envisioned when we optioned him,” Stearns added.
There are no guarantees, of course, that Alvarez’s Minor League success will continue to translate. Many evaluators believe the gap between Triple-A and the Majors has never been wider, given the quality of pitching at the highest level. Still, Alvarez saw enough top-flight velocity at Syracuse for Mets officials to consider his improvements real. Monday’s double came on a 97 mph pitch.
If he can keep rediscovering that 2023 form as the team’s everyday catcher, Alvarez will lengthen the bottom half of a lineup that has often struggled to produce runs without him. The Mets don’t need him to be their best hitter. They just need him to be a threat, as he was throughout Monday’s game.
Mentally, Alvarez said, he is also in a good place, committed to staying in the Majors for good.
“It’s like when you stumble on a rock,” Alvarez said. “You don’t want to stumble there again.”