New York Mets Star Alvarez Doing Historic Things with Power at the Plate

New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez is less than 50 games into his MLB career and his power is turning heads.

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The legend of New York Mets catcher Francisco Álvarez seems to grow with every game.

The catch is that he’s only played 43 games.

Álvarez is doing things that are incomparable at this point in his career. Technically, he’s still considered a prospect by publications like Baseball America. But that won’t last much longer.

He’ll graduate soon. And he has a full-time job with the Mets.

Álvarez hit his 12th home run of the season on Saturday, a 5-1 victory for the Mets.

Álvarez is tied for the lead among MLB catchers for home runs this season. Here’s the catch:

Álvarez had 136 at-bats at the time he tied for the lead. The co-leaders were Kansas City’s Salvador Pérez (227 at-bats) and Atlanta’s Sean Murphy (184 at-bats).

He now has 140 at-bats, and with 12 home runs he’s hitting one every 11.7 at-bats.

Plus, there's this:

most HR in 1st 45 games played in season, primary-position catchers at age 21 or younger:

2023 Francisco Alvarez: 12
1969 Johnny Bench: 11

Saturday was Alvarez’s 43rd game of the season, so his next 2 games count toward this total, too

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 10, 2023

But it gets better. There’s more than three months left in the season, which gives Álvarez plenty of time to catch up with the record for most home runs in a season for an age-21 catcher.

That’s some pretty rare air, per MLB.com.

most HR in age-21 season or younger, AL/NL catchers:

1969 Johnny Bench: 26
1973 Darrell Porter: 16
1968 Johnny Bench: 15
2023 Francisco Alvarez: 12 https://t.co/AgM2DIUc6j

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 10, 2023

Johnny Bench, who holds the record at 26, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It’s a welcome dose of power for the Mets, who are without first baseman and home run leader Pete Alonso due to injury. He’s hit 22. Next on the team list is shortstop Francisco Lindor, who has 12 home runs.

Alvarez has been building toward this for some time after signing as an international free agent with the Mets in the summer of 2018. He worked his way through the Mets system, getting an MLB Futures Game bid in 2021 and 2022 while finally reaching Triple-A Syracuse last season,

He lasted just four games with Syracuse this season before his call-up.

Entering this week he’s slashing .243/.293/.543/.836 with six doubles and 25 RBI.

But it’s the home runs, it’s the power, that’s taking the Mets by storm.