Mets, Francisco Alvarez haven't discussed extension terms
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez during a spring training workout on Feb. 12 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Francisco Alvarez and the Mets have not had any “concrete” discussions about a long-term contract, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday, but representatives from both sides say they are open-minded to such a deal.
Further, they have expressed to each other an intention to talk about it — at some point, a source said, whether that is during camp, next offseason or later.
Spring training is a popular time for clubs to sign productive, high-ceilinged pre-arbitration players such as Alvarez to multiyear pacts. But since Alvarez, 22, wouldn’t be a free agent until after the 2028 season, there is no timeliness pressure on anybody.
Plus, as one person involved noted, it would behoove the Mets to wait while new management gets to know Alvarez before making a large commitment to him.
“Right now, my only goals are to go out there to go play, go do what I need to do,” Alvarez, who is represented by Rimas Sports, said through an interpreter Tuesday. “The idea of a contract — that’s really in the hands of my agent and in the hands of the organization. If they think that that’s the best course of action, then that’s a conversation they need to have. Right now, I’m just focused on winning games and working hard.”
The idea of a long-term deal for Alvarez popped up Tuesday because a report out of the Dominican Republic said the catcher was “close” to signing an extension.
That triggered something of a fire drill at Mets camp, with team officials and Alvarez’s representatives quickly saying that that was wrong. The Mets went as far as to have a spokesperson make the rounds with reporters to clarify as much.
“My agent hasn’t told me anything, so I’m assuming that they haven’t had any types of conversations,” Alvarez said. “They haven’t approached me with any types of conversations, so as of right now, there’s nothing.”
President of baseball operations David Stearns signed a couple of players to pre-arbitration extensions when he ran the Brewers and has said he will consider the same when merited with the Mets. Benefits include guaranteed money for the player and cost certainty for the team.
More often, though, those talks don’t yield an agreement, he said.
“It’s something that every organization has to explore and requires both sides to have interest,” Stearns told Newsday in December. “And certainly, as we go forward, hopefully, we’ll have a number of players in that second and third [year] where it makes sense to talk to them about it.”
Alvarez batted .209 with 25 homers and a .721 OPS — slightly below the league average — as a rookie in 2023.
This season, Alvarez is due to make about the major-league minimum salary, which is $740,000. He would stand to make slightly more in 2025 before reaching arbitration — players’ first chance to negotiate their pay — for the first time in 2026.
With a longer contract, if one came to fruition, Alvarez’s salary would go up. But so would his hit against the Mets’ luxury-tax payroll. Since that figure already is at about $330 million, according to publicly available projections, a raise for Alvarez would mean a bump in their end-of-year tax bill, too.
The most expensive catcher on the Mets’ payroll this year is James McCann, who is with the Orioles but will cost the Mets $9.5 million. Then there are Omar Narvaez ($7.5 million) and Tomas Nido, whose $1.85 million salary is guaranteed even though he is no longer on the major-league roster.
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.
