Mets Catcher Comes With Two Sides That Make Him Problematic

The New York Mets have more than their share of players who are tough to watch, but Francisco Alvarez has to be near or at the top of the list. He comes with two sides that make him both promising and vexing, and they could make him a sell-low trade candidate going forward. 

Start with the potential. It’s formidable, especially offensively. Alvarez makes loud contact, and when he gets a hold of a pitch, the ball usually goes a long way. He’s been a power threat ever since the Mets brought him up, even as the rest of his game has slowly deteriorated. 

Alvarez has averaged almost 16 home runs per season during the four years in which he’s had a significant number of at bats, and that includes a couple of years where injuries have taken him out of the lineup for significant stretches. That’s rare power production for a catcher, and it’s Alvarez’s biggest strength. 

His defensive skill set also looks strong, at least on paper. Alvarez has a plus arm, and when he’s engaged defensively he’s not bad. There’s a lot to like about Alvarez when it comes to potential, but then you get to the eye-test part where you watch him consistently. 

That’s when all kinds of flaws emerge. Alvarez doesn’t show much when it comes to plate discipline, as his strikeout rate of almost 35 percent this year shows. He can’t seem to lay off the high fastball, and he chases constantly, to the point where he gets himeslf out as often as any hitter in the Mets lineup. 

It gets worse defensively, too. Alvarez uses that strong arm erratically, and he made some bad errors trying to throw behind runners at first despite the Mets having a series of defensively questionable players at first. 

His discipline behind the plate is also an issue. Alvarez can be a technically sound defensive catchers at times, but “at times” is the operative phrase there. He doesn’t always move well to block balls in the dirt, and at times this seems to be an issue of focus, not talent. It’s also not unusual for passed balls through the five hole to happen at the worst possible times. 

The toughest watch this year may have been Alvarez’s use of challenges. He had one of the worst percentages in baseball, and he often used challenges in the early innings, leaving the Mets without any in crucial late situations. The overall takeaway is that Alvarez is a low-IQ baseball player who is what he is at this point in his career, and this might be the right time to move him even though it would be a sell-low trade.