Getting to the big leagues and staying there is a constant adjustment process, even for premiere prospects like New York Met catcher Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez was dubbed a future star back in 2022 when he signed with the Mets, but last year he discovered that the process doesn’t always go easy.
Specifically, Alvarez had to make some adjustments, and they weren’t easy. Things got so bad from him that he was actually sent down to the minors, based on him having a 34.2 percent whiff rate on fastballs, along with a .338 slugging percentage on those pitches according to Jared Greenspan of MLB.com. In May, in pitchers began challenging him to hit fastballs over the plate, and he couldn't punch back.
"He's just being inconsistent, especially in being on time to hit the fastball," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza at the time. "That's the biggest thing. ... One thing we've seen here is him not get to a position to pull the trigger and make good swing decisions. I just feel like they're throwing fastballs by him."
To the catchers’ credit, he came back with a different mindset, and his numbers slowly started to improve, although he did have to recover from a series of freakish hand injuries before he could make it happen.
But Alvarez isn’t the talkative type. His responses to his issues were more of the one-sentence variety.
"In September, we can see if I don't hit the fastball," Alvarez said to the New York Post back when his issues came to a head in May.
Don’t be fooled by his “silent type” routine. Alvarez also made some adjustments in his swing angle, which went from 23 degrees to 29 degrees, and his next quote after that was, “My path is way better. I don’t get flat.”
Alvarez did more than just change his swing angle, though. He overhauled his entire swing mechanics, but it was a lot to handle in one session. It took some time, but the catcher’s slugging percentage was over .900 during the final month of the season.
Will it all carry forward? It’s hard to say. There is such a thing as too many adjustments at once, and Alvarez seemed to hit diminishing returns in that department. The catcher’s approach is also allowing him to square up balls to all parts of the field, but he’s not all that concerned about his power production, either.
"I'm very powerful," Alvarez has said about this. "I don't have to pull every pitch."