How you view Francisco Alvarez’s 2025 may say a lot about how you view life.
If you want to look at it as a glass half full situation, he had his best offensive season by a mile, and after his demotion
to Triple-A in late June and his subsequent promotion back to the Majors in late July, he was one of the best offensive catchers in baseball.
Now, of course, there was some bad to go along with the good, where the glass half empty mindset can come to the forefront. He was hurt quite a few times, including breaking his hamate bone in March, having surgery on it, giving him a delayed start to the season.
I, personally, would always choose to hear the bad news first, get it out of the way, and then use the good news as some sort of palate cleanser, and that is exactly how we are going to present the 2025 season review for Francisco Alvarez.
The injuries are a somewhat budding concern for the young backstop. In 2024, he lost nearly a month to a left thumb sprain that required surgery. As referenced above, he broke his hamate bone during batting practice in Spring Training. In late August, he sprained his UCL in his right thumb sliding into second base, opted to play through the pain, fractured his pinkie finger on his left hand from a hit by pitch on his left hand while on a rehab assignment for the aforementioned right thumb sprain, and played through both injuries through the final month or so of the season. His hands have been through the ringer these past few seasons, and the injuries do put the team behind the eight ball, even if they are not his fault — finding two catchers who can give you quality offense and defense is nearly impossible in modern baseball (frankly, it is hard enough to find one catcher who can do it), so constantly having to start a backup catcher and back him up with a Triple-A catcher is rough on the offense, especially when the absences have been long. It may behoove the Mets to find a backup catcher who can be closer to the 1B to Alvarez’s 1A, rather than a strict backup due to the growing list of injuries, even if that is a very tall task for the front office. While I would not call him injury prone, especially because some of these injuries can just be filed under Things That Can Happen, it is becoming a trend.
On the field, he did have his fair share of struggles, especially early on in the season. In April, Alavrez had an 81 wRC+, and in May he had an 86 wRC+, both of which are far below league average, and spurred his eventual demotion to Triple-A. He also was not himself behind the plate, where he has shown elite defensive traits in the past. While the numbers last year were not good (-5 framing and blocks above average per his Statcast profile), I think it is fair to give him a pass considering his injuries to his hands, and his prior seasons as an elite defensive catcher.
Despite all the bad that was listed above, there is a ton of good that happened in the back half of the season that still warrants a lot of excitement in the backstop. Over his final 41 games played (all from when he was recalled from Triple-A on July 21st), he hit .276/.360/.561, good for a 157 wRC+. That ranked third among catchers and 18th among all players with at least 50 plate appearances — he was one of the best hitters in all of baseball over that stretch, and that is including the month of September where he had a 120 wRC+ while playing through a UCL injury in his right thumb, and a fractured left pinkie finger. While the injuries to his hands caused him not to be a qualified hitter in the second half, there is absolutely no lying in those numbers; he transformed himself after his early season demotion, and put himself firmly back into the building block category.
So, where does this leave Alvarez for 2026? Frankly, it seems like he should be a building block for the organization. Finding catchers is so difficult — only 10 catchers were qualified hitters this year, six of them had wRC+’s above 100, and one of them is Ben Rice, who caught just 36 games last year, so he only technically counts. Alvarez, for the season, had a 124 wRC, which was good for seventh among catchers with 250 plate appearances, and would have had him fourth had he qualified. The Mets would be hard pressed to find a better option. Combine that with a more modern hitting apparatus under director of hitting Jeff Albert and hitting coach Troy Snitker, and there is a lot to dream about for the 23 year old.
On the flip side, the injury bug has hit him hard, and the Mets may be better served getting a better second option behind him, giving him more days off, or even more time at designated hitter if they do not acquire a full time option there. While it is way too early to give up on him, protecting him a little more to make sure he is on the field is important.
Francisco Alvarez’s 2025 fit a lot of highs, lows, and drama in just 76 games, but the path to a foundational player was on display, especially in the back half of the season.
