Mets' Carlos Mendoza 'not going to be afraid' to bench Francisco Alvarez if needed
Manager Carlos Mendoza #64 of the Mets looks on before Game 4 of the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Carlos Mendoza is willing to bench Francisco Alvarez if the Mets’ postseason circumstances require it, the manager said Thursday evening, but they aren’t there yet.
Alvarez was in the lineup for Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers, catching and batting ninth, his usual spots. And although he has struggled in the playoffs, entering the day batting .143 with no extra-base hits, 13 strikeouts and one walk, the Mets continue to ride him.
“I’m not going to be afraid to sit him if I have to,” Mendoza said. "I feel like today wasn’t the day. Obviously, there’s a lot of reasons why. [Jose] Quintana being on the mound. And he’s our guy. This is a guy who is one swing away [from changing] the outcome of a game.
“He’s 22. It’s not easy to hit in the playoffs. You’re facing elite pitching. That’s part of the development. I’m comfortable with continuing to play him and we’ll see how it goes today.”
Quintana, a lefthander, had a 2.87 ERA in 16 starts with Alvarez behind the plate in the regular season. When pitching to backup Luis Torrens, he had a 3.78 ERA in seven outings. Mendoza said such a trend is “hard to explain” — teams typically don’t regard catcher ERA as a very telling or useful statistic — but in general the Mets value Alvarez’s game-calling, pitcher-handling abilities.
Of late, that’s about all Alvarez has offered. He struck out looking three times in a Game 3 loss, drawing boos from the Citi Field crowd after the last. There are baseball reasons for his struggles — he said he is trying to shorten his swing to better time his hacks at fastballs — but some around the Mets have observed Alvarez trying too hard.
That’s a bad habit Alvarez has fallen into periodically early in his career, borne of a desire to help the team.
“Sometimes maybe I try to do too much,” Alvarez said.
He cited several veterans, including Francisco Lindor and Jesse Winker, who have offered encouragement, and especially highlighted Starling Marte, whose pep talk Wednesday stood out.
“Marte, he don't talk too much,” Alvarez said. “I was, like, wow, he really loves me and he wants to talk to me. And I feel like he talked to me from his heart. And I really appreciate all my teammates and all my coaches, too.
“He came to me and he told me, hey, be happy. Play your game. Don't try to do too much."
Marte said of his overarching message to chill out: “Don’t take too much pressure.”
Mendoza broached a similar conversation in the eighth inning of Game 3, the waning moments of a blowout loss, to let Alvarez know he would play again the next day. Alvarez appreciated that.
“He said don't worry about it. You got that? You're going to play tomorrow,” Alvarez said. “And he gave me confidence...I really like what he does in that moment.”
Mendoza said: “This is a guy who is high energy. He's intense. And he needs to learn and he's got to go through those experiences where he needs to find a way to slow the game down. He's got to breathe.”
And then there is the matter of Alvarez’s immense power, the threat of which exists even amid slumps.
Mendoza preached that “one swing away” patience with Pete Alonso prior to and at the start of the postseason. He wound up saving their season with an NL Wild Card Series-winning home run.
“He just has to relax here a little bit," Mendoza said. "But we know the potential there offensively.”
Alvarez echoed: “I can have a different result and can flip everything today.”
Notes & quotes: Mendoza said he put Harrison Bader in centerfield in place of Tyrone Taylor because Bader had three good at-bats (in three tries) against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in April . . . Tommy Edman on Shohei Ohtani’s home runs: “It just comes off his bat different. It's like a golf ball. I keep saying I've never seen a ball hit that far, but at some point, like, you've seen a bunch of Shohei's homers” . . . The Temptations singing group will perform the national anthem prior to Game 5 on Friday. And then they’ll play “My Girl” — Lindor’s walkup song — on the field before first pitch.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
