Reese Kaplan -- A Bright Spot in All of the 2023 Darkness

In the realm of totally unreasonable comparisons, let's take a look at a recently in-the-news-for-the-wrong-reason former Cincinnati Reds receiver, Johnny Bench.  For all of the Mets fans who lived and prospered with Mike Piazza calling games for them they were willing to look past his defensive skills to revel in what he could do with the bat.  For fans of Jerry Grote, fans would accept anything above a .250 batting average to get his ability to call games and nail baserunners.  

Still, when it comes to the overall value of a player behind the dish, no one even comes close to what Johnny Bench delivered during his top-of-the-game defense and offense.  

Now the Mets have a player who all of the sudden is pushing Bench's name back into the conversation again in a bulked up slugging catcher, Francisco Alvarez.  

At the tender age of 21 he made his debut probably sooner than the Mets would have intended as they are in the habit of holding rookies back artificially for more time than necessary unless major injuries occur forcing their hand.  Of course, with Omar Narvaez unable to play and Tomas Nido hitting like, well, Tomas Nido, the Mets turned for what they thought would be a short term stay for their youngster with a chest protector.  After all, no one questioned his power, but in AAA he did not hit for an average and his defense was highly questionable.  

Something happened.  Something clicked.  All of the sudden Alvarez embraced defensive advice and he looked better than expected behind the plate.  His throwing arm was never a question, but calling the game and working the corners was always a sore spot.  Little by little he improved significantly and he quickly became the primary catcher not for his bat but  for his performance on defense.  

However, no one is suggesting Alvarez will ever match Johnny Bench when it comes to aiding his pitchers and playing stellar defense.  With rare exception, he was in a class of his own on run prevention side of the game.  

No, the comparisons today have to do with power hitting and the prospect of what Alvarez is likely to accomplish by year's end.  As of Friday morning Francisco Alvarez has already sent 19 pitches over the outfield fence and by glancing at the calendar we can see it's just July 21st.  Now looking back at Bench's rookie season we see he set a home run record for all  catchers at the tender age of 21.  

After winning Rookie of the Year at age 20, for an encore he hit .293 with 26 home runs and 90 RBIs.  While no one is expecting Alvarez's batting average to jump 50 points between now and year's end nor his RBI totals to surpass what Bench did, that home run mark is very much in sight.  

Now understand that Alvarez was being coddled with 8th and 9th place in the batting order for much of the season until just very recently when his power surge was not a short term thing.  Now as he is put into a more run producing position in the order his power and RBIs should continue to increase.  Right now he's driven in 40 runs and it's not unreasonable to think that with more baserunners on ahead of him that he might even double that number by year's end.  

However, it's the home run numbers that really are catching everyone's attention.  19 HRs in 70 games is a pace that would lead to 43 home runs (and 89 RBIs) over the course of a full 162 game season.  That would obliterate what Hall of Famer Bench did at the same age.  

No one is suggesting Alvarez is going to have the same level of career as Johnny Bench, but during a season that has had little to celebrate other than the sale of antacids, aspirin and adult beverages.