Francisco Alvarez's results catching up to his work
Francisco Alvarez of the Mets reacts after his sixth-inning two-run home run against the White Sox at Citi Field on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The day after swatting a pair of home runs, the Mets’ first must-see catcher since Mike Piazza shot pool with coach Wayne Kirby.
Racking balls at the clubhouse table, Francisco Alvarez flashed his usual wide smile -- a frequent sight, whether joking with teammates or circling the bases for one of his 19 homers, tops for any player at his position this season.
When that game ended, Alvarez finished putting on his uniform, grabbed his glove and made two more stops en route to batting practice. The first was at the locker of Omar Narvaez, the eight-year veteran he abruptly replaced but who is now a mentor, and then a flyby at Kodai Senga’s doorstep.
Reaching into a neighboring locker, Alvarez pulled out a neon-yellow softball, pounding into his mitt twice before mimicking Senga’s delivery. The two quickly burst out laughing over the impression.
By most estimates, no one on the Mets works harder at his craft than Alvarez, and no one has done what he’s doing, at such a young age, since Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, the engine of the Big Red Machine. Entering Wednesday, Alvarez’s .534 slugging percentage is the highest ever for a Met for his age 21 season or younger, and Bench’s .487 is the standard for a catcher in that specific demographic.
Also, no one appears to be having more fun dazzling the baseball world, at the sport’s most demanding position. But it’s what many of us don’t get to observe that separates Alvarez, rapidly elevating him from overmatched rookie in April to serious Rookie of the Year candidate here in mid-July.
“He does his homework,” manager Buck Showalter said before Wednesday’s game against the White Sox. “I see him in that room with them, and it’s important to him, it’s sincere -- and I think he likes it. It’s not work. With some people, it’s 'I gotta do this, I gotta do that'. He likes it. And he’s got a plan, not selfishly just for his benefit, but because he’s chasing being good.”
For Alvarez, on the rookie scale, it’s more like a pursuit of greatness. How else do you characterize being mentioned in the same breath as the legendary Bench? Only two other Mets at 21 or younger have ever posted a .500 or better slugging percentage, David Wright (.525 in 2004) and Darryl Strawberry (.512 in 1983), but surpassing Bench -- who hit 25 homers in his age 21 season -- would be the real prize.
At least from a historian’s perspective. When Bench’s name was floated to Alvarez in that context after Tuesday’s two-homer performance, it was unclear how familiar he was with the Reds’ first-ballot Hall of Famer -- Bench retired nearly two decades before the Mets’ catcher was even born. But his reply was more in line with a young player not ready to revel in his present accomplishments just yet.
“I’m not putting too much mind to it right now,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “Because the games are still meaningful and I expect to hit more home runs. I don’t know how many home runs Johnny Bench hit and I’m not really focused on that right now.”
With 19 homers through 69 games, Alvarez is on pace to smack close to 35 by season’s end (loosely factoring in the requisite off days), which would give him a shot to break Piazza’s rookie catcher mark of 35 set in 1993 (when he was 24 yrs old). Tuesday’s fireworks display already was Alvarez’s third multi-homer game of the season, joining Strawberry and Pete Alonso as the only Mets rookies to reach that mark (they each had four).
Alvarez’s recent surge, however, is not limited to Flushing superlatives. He’s on the same level with some of the sport’s most destructive bats lately, as his seven home runs this month are second only to Manny Machado’s nine. Alvarez said Tuesday night that he owes his July assault to a few mechanical tweaks by the coaching staff, but that seems more akin to flicking a switch. That compact, 5-foot-10 cannonball frame generates a freakish amount of power. And as long as he’s making good decisions, it’s bad news for opposing pitchers, even when he’s drawing walks. Showalter appreciated the pair he drew Tuesday night.
“He’s not having as many emotional at-bats,” Showalter said of Alvarez’s maturation at the plate. “You’re always walking a fine line not taking that away from him, but it’s under control. When you have that type of power at your fingertips, you want to swing. You want to hit the ball, you want to make it go a long way.
"So the ability to not get out of the strike zone and let them use your aggressiveness against you. The best thing is I’ve enjoyed watching him start to walk a little bit more and realize what they’re trying to do to him. And when they do make a mistake, he’s in a position to hurt them.”
That’s the really fun part for Alvarez, whose electricity -- on and off the field -- has brightened up an otherwise gloomy season in Flushing.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
