Statistical Spotlight: Francisco Alvarez’s Call-Up

At the beginning of the 2025 season, Francisco Alvarez had high expectations to be a power bat in the middle of the lineup. He started off the season on the injured list from a hand injury which he received surgery on. Then, he made his debut on April 25, 2025, however, he struggled to get going. His bat was nearly non-existent, and his play behind the plate was also struggling. So much so that he got optioned to Triple-A in late June. It was for the better, as he came back with a much improved approach at the plate, as well as behind it.

Alvarez was terrible at the beginning of the season. He slashed .236/.319/.333 with an OPS of .652. He only hit three home runs and drove in 11 runs across 34 games. He simply did not look like himself. Management then made the difficult decision to send him down to Syracuse (Triple-A), which did him well. After almost a month in Triple-A, Alvarez came back on July 21, on fire. He slashed .276/.360/.561 with a .921 OPS for the remainder of the season. He hit eight home runs while driving in 21 runs after his return to the Mets.

Looking at some more advanced metrics, he did a very nice job at hitting against the fastball and off-speed pitch. He batted .298 with a .484 slugging percentage against the fastball. He also hit six of his 11 home runs against the heater. Against off-speed stuff, he hit .375 with a .792 slugging percentage.

On the flip side, he continued to struggle against breaking balls. He only batted .173 with a .316 slug. His whiff rate was much higher against breaking balls; 44.1%, compared to the fastball (29%) and the off-speed (24.4%).

There was great success for Alvarez during the second half of the season. He started to find his form. Unfortunately he did get injured twice during the later half of the season, once his thumb the other his elbow. Hopefully these injuries don’t linger into 2026. Alvarez can be a true X-factor in this Mets lineup given the fact that he keeps up his play like he did after his call-up. The potential is there. Fix the chasing of breaking balls and Alvarez can become a very formidable bat.

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