Photo by Ed Delany of MMO

Francisco Álvarez is up and ready to go for Mets camp. The organization’s No. 1 prospect is already in Port St. Lucie, Florida as we await the rest of pitchers and catcher to report to spring training.

Álvarez made his 2022 goal come true by making it to the major leagues. Álvarez would like to make it to the big leagues out of camp this year but the Mets appear to have other plans with the addition of Omar Narvaez this winter, along with the return of Tomas Nido and Michael Perez.

The good news for the top prospect is Narváez is he’s expected to mentor Álvarez and is excited at the idea of doing so.

But Álvarez isn’t the only news story to come out of Port St. Lucie. There’s been a large showing of familiar faces at the team facilities. The official report date isn’t until Feb. 15 for pitchers and Feb. 20 for players.

Prospects Brett Baty and Mark Vientos are down in Florida along with Brandon Nimmo and Eduardo Escobar.

“We had a nice group come out today, so I’m really excited. This is what I’ve been waiting for since signing,” Nimmo told SNY. “There’s a lot of expectations on this team, and that comes from without and within. We know we have a good team, so we’re wanting to get this thing started and get the team chemistry going and start to learn the new guys so that we can all be pulling the same end of the rope. That’s all a part of spring training, so we’re excited to get started.”

Mets players involved in the World Baseball Classic will report to facilities earlier. Pitchers like Adam Ottavino will report to camp by Feb. 13 and position players including Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Francisco Lindor will report by Feb. 16.

Baseball is almost here and the Mets seem ready to start their 2023 season.