Francisco Álvarez Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

The Mets played a sim game at 11 a.m. on Monday at Clover Park, with the bulk of the pitchers being big leaguers. The position players on the lineup card were all minor leaguers, but guys like Pete Alonso and James McCann also took multiple at-bats.

Alonso and McCann had good days at the plate, though Francisco Álvarez stood out again. The 20-year-old catcher prospect had two doubles in the game, both to right field. His manager Buck Showalter talked about how impressed he was with the Mets’ top prospects, saying Álvarez has been “as advertised” in big league camp. Both doubles for Álvarez came off right-hander Jose Rodriguez.

Other notable prospects in the game include Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio, Khalil Lee, Nick Plummer, Jake Mangum, and Wilmer Reyes.

Another important note from the sim game was fellow Mets catcher McCann swinging the bat well as he tries to come back from a back issue. The veteran had three hits in the game, including two in one inning (sim game rules!). McCann didn’t run out his hits and did have a pinch runner take over for him on the hits.

Showalter said following the sim game action that McCann was good-to-go for Tuesday night’s game at the Marlins. It will be an important second season for the New York catcher, as MMO’s Thomas Hall wrote about the areas McCann needs to improve on to be successful in 2022.

Alonso did what Alonso does; he had a couple of rockets in the game and again had two hits in one inning against Trevor Williams. Both were doubles, one down the left field line and one down the right field line.

Most of the Mets’ top bullpen arms worked in the game after Williams and Rodriguez threw their innings. Seth Lugo, Trevor May, and Edwin Diaz looked good in their scoreless innings. Miguel Castro gave up an RBI single to minor leaguer Quinn Brodey. Right-hander Yennsy Diaz pitched an inning as well.

Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

Lugo was particularly impressive, with two strikeouts in his inning of work. It was a scoreless inning with one strikeout in his only official outing this spring. Minor leaguers Junior Santos and Josh Walker finished off the game with an inning each. Walker got five outs in his inning because he got the first three outs so quickly.

The Mets will be back in Grapefruit League action on Tuesday night against the Marlins in Jupiter at 6:40 p.m., with Chris Bassitt getting the start.