Mets coach Antoan Richardson gives Francisco Alvarez a reminder: He is 'The Best'
Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez reacts after hitting the game-winning home run against the Orioles during the ninth inning on Aug. 19. Credit: Noah K. Murray
In a fleeting moment Tuesday night, after the sort of small win that any slumping player needs to savor, Mets first-base coach Antoan Richardson threw an arm over Francisco Alvarez’s shoulder and pointed at the tattoo at the base of his neck.
Written in red ink is a simple message from Alvarez to himself: “The Best.” He got that in late 2022, after he made his major-league debut at age 20. Amid this stretch of poor hitting, the worst of Alvarez’s career, Richardson wanted to remind him.
“He came to me and he told me, hey, remember you are the best. Nice hit. Keep it going, keep it going, come on,” Alvarez said Wednesday afternoon. “He always picks me up.”
Richardson said: “I just reminded him how good he is. He’s an important piece of this team. And I think every once in a while, you need a reminder. I wanted to let him know he’s still the best regardless of what’s going on and encourage him to keep going.”
During the Mets’ game-breaking rally in the bottom of the eighth, Alvarez singled. He took a pitch on the outer third of the plate and laced it the other way, the exact sort of thing hitting coach Eric Chavez has been encouraging him to do lately, as opposed to being power-obsessed.
It raised his second-half slash line to .155/.198/.227.
“Sometimes we forget because we are not perfect,” Alvarez said. “Sometimes I forget, and when I look in the mirror, oh, I remember I’m the best.”
When Alvarez looks in the mirror, the letters are inverted because, well, that’s how mirrors work. But that’s not the point.
“It’s a nice spot to put that,” Alvarez said. “I just think it’s going to look nice and I can remember I’m the best every day.”
In his first year with the club, Richardson, who also oversees outfield defense and baserunning, has developed what he called a “pretty close” relationship with Alvarez, even though the catcher's role/skill set doesn’t exactly line up with Richardson’s duties.
“I don’t know that position matters on this team. [Manager Carlos Mendoza] really talked about relationships early on, how important it was,” Richardson said. “[Alvarez] is someone I really care about on and off the field. Any time I need to reel him in or give him a word of encouragement or hold him accountable, whatever it is, I feel very confident doing that. So I’m going to poke the bear when I need to poke the bear and I’m going to hug him and love on him as well.”
Longtime exec departs
The latest turn in president of baseball operations David Stearns’ front-office shakeup: Assistant general manager Ian Levin will leave the organization after this season.
Levin has been with the Mets since 2005, when he was an intern in the public relations department. He climbed the ranks on the baseball operations side and held various roles in amateur scouting, analytics and player development before becoming an AGM in July 2021.
Nearing the end of Stearns’ first season with the Mets, a large handful of scouts and several upper-level executives have been let go or decided to depart. That is a normal occurrence when a team hires a new head of baseball operations, with Stearns, in this case, taking the year to evaluate whom the Mets have and in which spots he wants to make his own hires.
As the rotation turns
Paul Blackburn said his rehab outing with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday was uneventful and therefore successful. He allowed one run in 6 2/3 innings.
He will rejoin the rotation next week when the Mets visit Toronto, according to Mendoza. The Mets haven’t announced which day yet.
Also, the Mets flipped Sean Manaea (now pitching Friday against the Reds) and Jose Quintana (Saturday) in the rotation. The dual purposes: maximizing the opportunities for Manaea, who has been the Mets’ best pitcher, and giving Quintana more rest.
Senga’s latest step
Kodai Senga threw his first bullpen session Wednesday afternoon, the latest sign that his recovery from a left calf strain is going smoothly and that him pitching in the final days of the regular season remains possible.
“The way the ball was coming out, it was good to see him in full [uniform] and actually letting it go,” Mendoza said. “Good step today for sure.”
Extra bases
Mendoza said Jose Butto has struggled to recover after some recent outings, so fatigue has factored into his recent poorer performance, which is not uncommon for starters recently converted to relievers. “We have to be mindful of the way we’re using him here moving forward,” Mendoza said . . . The Mets dedicated the first-base photo well at Citi Field to Marc Levine, unveiling a plaque during a ceremony attended by his family and dozens of others. Levine, the team’s longtime photographer, died in July.
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.
