Mike's Mets - Catch-22 For Francisco Alvarez?

 

By Mike Steffanos

Buck Showalter's comments about Francisco Álvarez are a little disconcerting for those of us who want to see the young catcher get a chance to contribute to the New York Mets.

Buck Showalter is a veteran manager who prefers to coach veteran players — particularly when he is managing a club with the goal of winning a title. Francisco Álvarez is an inexperienced youngster who plays a defensive position that is, perhaps, the most demanding on a baseball diamond. A good catcher has to perform complex athletic skills while spending 3 hours crouching and making the right mental choices supporting his pitcher. Those demands are why offensive production is often a secondary consideration when teams choose their catchers.

Tomás Nido has a lifetime OPS+ of 59, only a single point better than Doug Flynn, possibly the biggest Automatic Out in my years of watching the Mets. (In fairness to Flynn, there were undoubtedly worse hitters who wore the orange and blue for a time, but none, in my judgment, who were given over 2,200 PA by the Mets.) Nido reportedly has made some swing changes hoping to provide more offense. Of course, we've heard that before, and it never seems to bear fruit. Tomás will most likely always be a below-average hitter. But, for all of that, Nido is a fine defensive catcher who is adept at handling veteran pitchers.

The Mets undoubtedly would benefit greatly from more offense from the catching position. In the long term, Álvarez offers a lot of hope and promise for providing that punch to the lineup. Francisco gave Mets fans a taste of his raw power last season when he crushed a homer at Citi Field last September during his limited cameo with the Mets. There is no question that Álvarez's power could potentially help the Mets. The key is unlocking this potential by handling Francsico in a manner that eases his transition to the Majors.

The idea behind sending Francisco back to Syracuse to begin the season was that he would catch the majority of games and continue to improve his defense. It's clear that won't happen with the Mets. No one expects Álvarez to jump over Nido and become the number one catcher. On the other hand, I can't see how it's in Francisco's best interest — or the long-term best interest of the Mets — to fill the traditional backup catcher's role of spelling the starting catcher once or twice a week.

You can make an argument that Álvarez would benefit from professional coaching even on days he doesn't start. But, given that the Mets think that Omar Narváez will miss 8-9 weeks with his calf injury, Álvarez spending most of his time on the bench for that prolonged period would be a detriment to his development.

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