Francisco Alvarez appears to have found his power stroke in the minors.
The Mets’ young backstop lifted a home run for the second straight game, cutting into Syracuse's late-inning deficit with a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth on Saturday night.
He jumped on a first pitch fastball and punched it 412 feet the other way with an exit velocity of 110 mph.
Alvarez would strike again just one inning later, this time crushing a 3-1 fastball down in the zone to dead center for a three-run homer with Syracuse down to their last out.
The 23-year-old finished the night 2-for-4 with two homers and five RBI.
He’s now left the yard seven times and has an .878 OPS in 12 games since being sent back down.
With Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger not offering much offensively, you have to figure Alvarez may be back at the big league level when the second half kicks off next week.
ALVY AGAIN!!!
Francisco Alvarez homers for the second straight inning! pic.twitter.com/ZpRQBhaDl4
— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) July 13, 2025
Top prospect Drew Gilbert has also been making a strong case for a potential promotion.
Gilbert left the yard earlier in the game, too — cutting the lead in half at the time with a no-doubt two-run homer deep over the right-field fence.
He picked up a single a few innings later, and then drove in the scorching hot Pablo Reyes with a double down the right field line in the bottom of the ninth.
The lefty-hitting outfielder came into the night with a .272 average and .880 OPS since the beginning of June, and only saw those numbers go up as he picked up three more knocks.
With the Mets still looking for someone to take hold of the strong side of their center field platoon, perhaps we could see him receive a shot to show what he can do ahead of the trade deadline.
Not much went right for Syracuse on the pitching side, but one of the lone bright spots was Brooks Raley.
The left-hander put together another easy appearance as he draws closer to his big league return.
With another punchout, Raley now has 13 across 9.0 scoreless innings during his minor league rehab stint.
Carlos Mendoza said this week that the next step is for him to pitch in back-to-back games, so we could potentially see him back out there Sunday, and if all goes well, he may return for the start of the second half.
Getting Raley back would be a massive boost for a bullpen that was tremendous on Sunday, but has proven to be extremely leaky as they've dealt with injuries the past few weeks.
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