Francisco Álvarez Has Been Thriving Defensively Early On

Francisco Álvarez has always been highly regarded because of his power and potential at the plate. The one aspect of his game that not only kept the young Venezuelan from breaking into the big leagues sooner, but also caused several pundits and scouts to question his true ceiling overall has been his defense. Well, in just 22 games this season Álvarez’s defensive game has not only been serviceable, but borderline elite.

First off, his framing grade ranks in the league’s 90th percentile per Baseball Savant. Framing is an underrated attribute of any catcher’s game, especially one that deals with struggling starting pitching, is the ability to steal some extra strikes on pitches that may be out of the zone. The 21-year-old has demonstrated this ability on several occasions early this season resulting in the immensely impressive 90th percentile ranking.

As for the other pressing defensive duty of a catcher – managing the basepaths, on the surface, Álvarez has “struggled.” He has only caught three of 25 individuals that have attempted to swipe a bag against him this season. The 22 stolen bases Álvarez has allowed is the fourth-most in the National League. This all seems pretty bad right?

Well, what is encouraging is despite the subpar 12 percent caught-stealing rate, his pop time to second base ranks in the league’s 64th percentile. Basically, the rookie catcher is doing a good job of getting the ball down to second base, but, the runners are either getting too large of a jump/lead (poor job by Mets’ pitchers in holding runners on) and/or the effects of the new pickoff rules and the increased base sizes are really helping the opposition.

Both appear true in this scenario. This, in essence, explains the strong pop time but low caught-stealing rate.

To summarize the totality of Álvarez’s defensive performances this season you can look at the following all-encompassing defensive statistics: a defensive runs saved (DRS) of plus-5 (per Fangraphs), a defensive rating of 3.4 (per Fangraphs), and a defensive WAR of 0.4 (per ESPN). These figures rank the rookie eighth, second, and eighth in each category, respectively. Note, those rankings are of the 78 catchers who have appeared in a major-league game this season thus far and do the best job of valuing Álvarez’s defensive game as a whole.

For specific comparison’s sake, Álvarez tops Phillies’ catcher, and two-time Gold Glove award winner, J.T. Realmuto, in all of the following defensive categories: Fangraph’s DRS, Fangraph’s defensive rating, and Baseball Savant’s framing. They are tied in the ESPN’s defensive WAR statistic.

Bottom line: it is certainly not obscene to say Álvarez’s defensive game has been one of the strongest in the majors so far this season.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Álvarez is only 22 games into the 2023 season which means all of the above is based on a very small sample size. I am not arguing that Álvarez is going to capture a Gold Glove this season and go one to be a defensive superstar.

Simply, given all the preconceived notions about how weak Álvarez’s defensive game would be in the major leagues, it is a terrific early sign to see him performing so well. Especially given how there were certainly some who argued that Álvarez’s defensive game was going to be so bad that he may had to resort to being a designated hitter only given he would not be playable behind the dish.

We knew this hitting is going to be there, but if the defensive game reflects anywhere near the level it has through the first 22 games, there’s a real chance the Mets may just get one of the best all-around catchers in the majors for years and year to come when it is all said and done.

All statistics and rankings of the evening of May 13, 2023.