Francisco Alvarez, Photo by Dan Fritz
With the season quickly coming to a close, the New York Mets announced their annual minor league awards on Sunday afternoon.
Among the recipients was top prospect, catcher Francisco Alvarez, who was named the player development position player of the year.
Alvarez enjoyed a monster season, which helped him climb into the top-10 of some prospect rankings. He was selected to participate in the All-Star Futures Game, and he shined on the biggest stage, cracking a pinch-hit homer.
The future is beyond bright, as Alvarez has very quickly developed into one of the better catching prospects in all of baseball. He now ranks as high as the #10 prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline.
At just 19-years old, Alvarez hit .272 with a .941 OPS and 24 home runs over 99 games with St. Lucie and Brooklyn this season. He led all Mets minor leaguers in RBI (70), extra-base hits (43), and slugging percentage (.538), and his 24 homers tied for the organization lead.
It should also be noted that third baseman Mark Vientos was one of the biggest risers in the system this season. The slugger was recently promoted to Triple-A Syracuse, and is currently tied with Alvarez with 24 homers and has a .942 OPS on the season.
On the pitching side of things, Adam Oller was named the player development pitcher of the year.
The right-hander hasn’t quite cracked the Mets’ Top-30 prospects list yet, but he certainly made a name for himself this season. Oller put together a very solid season at both the Double-A and Triple-A level.
Over 15 starts with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, he posted a 4.03 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and struck out a team-leading 95 batters over 76 innings. He was then promoted to Triple-A where he has pitched even better.
Oller got off to a roaring start at the new level, striking out 13 batters in his first Triple-A outing, and he’s settled in nicely since then. The right-hander has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his seven outings with Syracuse.
In 38 innings, he’s posted a 1.88 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and struck out 38 batters. His 133 strikeouts across the two levels leads all Mets minor leaguers.
Oller was originally selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft. He spent a few seasons in their organization, but was then by the Mets during the minor league portion of the 2019 Rule 5 Draft.
The 26-year old has really impressed in his first season with the Mets organization. If he can continue pitching this way heading into next season, Oller certainly figures to have a shot at cracking the big league level.
You can check out Oller’s interview from last offseason with MMO’s own Michelle Ioannou here!
The Mets also named 17-year old infielder Kevin Villavicencio their Dominican Academy Position Player of the Year after he hit .303 with a .373 OBP and 14 stolen bases over 42 games.
Joel Diaz, a 17-year old who the Mets signed at the beginning of the year, took home the Dominican Academy Pitcher of the Year. The right-hander posted a 0.58 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, and 59 strikeouts over 14 starts on the season.
Additionally, Minor League Medical Coordinator Matt Hunter and Minor League Pitching Movement and Rehab Coordinator Kyle Driscoll were named the staff members of the year. Driscoll is in just his second season with the Mets, and Hunter is wrapping up his seventeenth.
