More details on the Mets decision to send Francisco Alvarez to the minors

The New York Mets made the decision to option catcher Francisco Alvarez to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday.

Despite slugging a home run in the Mets' latest win, it's no secret that Alvarez has struggled immensely with the bat this season. In 35 games, Alvarez was slashing just .236/.319/.333 with a .652 OPS, three homers and 11 RBI.

But his defense has taken a major step back this year as well.

According to sources, there was some division amongst coaches about how to address some of Alvarez’s defensive shortcomings. While the Mets lead MLB in ERA, Alvarez is nearly a run worse than Luis Torrens in Catcher's ERA (2.79 vs. 3.66) despite his familiarity with the staff.

Alvarez also ranks in the bottom of the league in pitch framing (-4 runs, tied for 50th), which has caused most of the internal debate. There are old school voices that believe Alvarez would improve with time, and new school coaches that are pushing emerging framing techniques like alternating a knee down and big glove movements to the midline.

The one thing everyone agrees on, is that Alvarez is a great teammate, hard worker and committed to improving at his craft.

It's unknown how long Alvarez will stay in the minor leagues for, but the struggles of both his offense and defense led to the decision to demote him to Triple-A. The Mets need Alvarez to play everyday in Syracuse and figure things out before bringing him back up to the big-league club.

With Alvarez in the minors, Torrens will assume the starting catching role with Hayden Senger backing him up.

Alvarez made a major change to his swing in the offseason, but broke his hamate bone in spring training. This nixed his opportunity to get used to the swing change before the regular season began.

The Mets were hoping Alvarez would bounce back at the major league level, however, they ultimately made the decision to option him on Sunday due to extended struggles on offense and defense.