Francisco Alvarez is back in the big leagues.
Following a 19-game stint with Triple-A Syracuse in which the 23-year-old backstop belted 11 home runs, Alvarez was recalled ahead of Monday’s series-opener against the Los Angeles Angels.
Speaking in the Mets' clubhouse on Monday afternoon, Alvarez, who is starting and hitting eighth in the order, said that he “learned a lot” from his time back in the minors.
“I think being down in Triple-A, what helped me was I learned how to be patient,” Alvarez said, via a translator. “I continued to work hard, continued to do what I needed to do, and just put in the time to eventually get back to the big leagues.”
“I figured out who I am as a player, who I am as a person, and I think that’s going to help me going forward,” he later added.
Alvarez, who emerged as one of the top prospects in baseball as he rose through the Mets’ farm system, burst onto the scene in 2023, when he hit 25 home runs and drove in 63 runs in 123 games.
But that tantalizing power took a step back in 2024, when he hit just 11 home runs in 100 games, and then again at the start of this season, as he hit only three home runs and posted a .652 OPS in 35 games before being sent down.
According to manager Carlos Mendoza, though, Alvarez's impressive run at Syracuse was about more than pure production.
"Since day one, when he went back down there, in talking to the manager and some of the coaches, how impressed they were with his work ethic," Mendoza said. "He got down there, not an easy situation after being here at the big league level at such a young age, and then just kind of like a wake-up call. ‘Hey, you’ve got to go back to the minor leagues,’ and for him to go down there, and like I said from day one saying ‘What do I have to do to get back up there?’ And he did that since day one.
"We saw the results. It seems like for the last week he hit a home run every day, but just how engaged he was with the pitching staff, everything from the defensive side, whether it was the receiving, the blocking, the throwing, the game-planning, the game-calling, everything. Open to feedback, it was just pretty impressive. And we’re all proud of him, because it’s not easy to do."
Alvarez looked much more like his 2023 self for Syracuse, hitting .299 with 11 home runs in 19 games. Now that he’s back in Queens, the goal is to stick in the majors for years to come.
“It’s real important for me,” Alvarez said about sticking in the big leagues. “It’s like when you stumble on a rock, you don’t want to stumble there again. So it’s just continue to move forward and avoid that rock so you don’t stumble again.”
“I feel really balanced right now,” he added. “I don’t feel like I’m too high, I don’t feel like I’m too low. So I feel really balanced right now, and I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be.”
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