Mets Need Francisco Álvarez On Their Playoff Roster

The Mets have a big decision to make on Friday and it’s a decision that could haunt them one way or another. Buck and company need to decide on the immediate future of Francisco Álvarez. Will the playoff lights be too bright for the future star? Or will he shine bright on baseball’s biggest stage?

After standing pat at the trade deadline when it came to finding another big bat, the Mets chose a much more strategic route. They traded for situational hitters as opposed to a unique bat that could do it all. Their first move was for Daniel Vogelbach, who would come in to face right-handed pitchers, and their second move was for Darin Ruf, who would come in to face left-handed pitchers.

During the first couple of weeks, everything was working fine, but it was bound to come back and bite the Mets and it did with Ruf going completely cold after a 6-for-18 start with the Mets. The veteran lefty masher has gone 4-for-48 with 16 strikeouts since August 18. Given Ruf’s struggles, the Mets called up slugging prospect Mark Vientos. While Vientos has looked better recently, he still only has a .546 OPS in 41 big-league plate appearances. 

Throughout that period, Mets fans and media members alike continued calling on one name everyone felt the Mets needed to have on their roster sooner than later. And while Eppler tried his best to fend off the chants for Álvarez, it looks like the Mets GM prefers to live by the quote “better late than never.”

Unfortunately, Eppler didn’t realize that never late is better. After waiting for the season to be nearly over, the Mets called up Álvarez in hopes that he would help lift a slumping offense over the experienced and determined Atlanta Braves. The Mets were unfortunately swept by the Braves and Álvarez went hitless in his at-bats against the defending champs. It certainly would’ve been a wiser move to promote Álvarez to face the lowly A’s to get him reps in the majors before the most important series of the season. 

You would think that after that showing against the Braves it would be wise to keep Álvarez off of the playoff roster but you’re wrong. With James McCann being one of the worst hitters in baseball this season with a 55 OPS+ and the Mets options at DH vs left-handers underwhelming, it would be wise for the Mets to carry Álvarez as an option to pinch hit and take at-bats as the designated hitter.

While he does have experience in catching for deGrom and Scherzer, he also has the best bat out of the three catchers. Certainly having Álvarez start a playoff game at only 20 years old behind the plate would be a tall task, though it would give Buck Showalter more options off the bench if the youngster was available. 

While he was called up to go against left-handed pitchers, Álvarez has collected his first two hits at the MLB level off of good right-handed relief pitchers.

He took Washing Nationals reliever Carl Edwards Jr. deep as a pinch hitter on Tuesday for a 439-foot bomb at Citi Field. He then hit a double off of another right-hander in Erasmo Ramirez. While these were just sample-size hits, the key to this is that Álvarez can be effective against lefties and righties and that’s what the Mets will need the most in the playoffs.

Álvarez got his first big league start at catcher on Wednesday and went 0-for-2 but picked up his first two major league walks. 

It’s certainly a small sample size of only a handful of games, however, Álvarez has looked like a player that has settled down after an intense first series in the majors. 

While the ultimate decision will come down to comfort for the Mets, the team should go all in if they want to make a run. To go all in would mean that they have to make some uncomfortable decisions even if it’s risky to have a 20-year-old rookie at DH. Fortunately, Álvarez is a high-risk, high-reward kind of player so this could pay off big time.