Why Mets sent struggling Francisco Alvarez down to Triple-A

The New York Mets surprised some fans and other outsiders when they demoted struggling catcher Francisco Alvarez to Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday. 

Ahead of what became New York's 7-1 loss at the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday night, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza addressed why the club decided to give Alvarez a bit of a reset in the early days of summer. 

"We decided it was best for him to go down in Triple-A, play every day, work on -- whether it’s the offense, defense, just in general," Mendoza said about the Alvarez move, per Robert Sanchez of SNY. "There’s a lot of potential there and, when he’s playing up to his potential, he’s got a chance to be a pretty special player. And we’re gonna need him. We expect him to be back, but right now we feel like it’s best for him to go down there and get reps."

A report from this past Thursday indicated that an Alvarez demotion was "not imminent." Thus, one may think the fact that he failed to adequately block a passed ball that led to a run during Saturday's 11-4 win in Philadelphia sealed his fate regarding his current status with the big league club. However, Will Sammon of The Athletic shared that "the Mets’ front office tries to avoid making reactionary decisions" and that the Alvarez move "was coming." 

"There were stretches where we felt, I felt like a couple of games where, OK, that’s what it’s supposed to look like. But then he’ll go a couple of games where he’s late with the fastball and then he chases, so just looking for consistency here," Mendoza said about Alvarez's performances this season.

Alvarez hit 25 home runs as a rookie in 2023, but the 23-year-old has largely lacked that kind of pop at the plate since he missed time due to a torn ligament in his left thumb last year. More recently, a broken hamate bone in his left hand kept him from making his 2025 regular-season debut until April 25. Over his first 35 games of the ongoing campaign, he slashed .236/.319/.333 with a lackluster .652 OPS, three homers and 11 RBI.

Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post mentioned that Mets catcher Luis Torrens "carries a reputation as a strong pitch framer" and that New York pitchers "have loved throwing to" Torrens this season. Mendoza pointed out that Alvarez splitting time with Torrens in the bigs was "probably not" what's best for the former's development. 

It also doesn't help that what was a first-place Mets team (46-32) dropped eight of its past nine games heading into Monday's series opener versus an Atlanta Braves side (35-41) that swept the Amazins in Atlanta last week. 

"With the Mets looking like a serious contender, they felt they could not wait longer for Alvarez to attempt to figure things out at the major-league level," Sammon added in his piece. 

It remains to be seen if Alvarez will rediscover his slugging ways with Triple-A Syracuse sooner rather than later.