Enjoying the little things – and big things – with Francisco Alvarez

When the team isn’t playing very well, it’s important to appreciate the little things even more. It makes me smile to go to the Mets’ Baseball-Reference page and see Francisco Alvarez is now listed as the primary catcher. And if that’s not enough, in the picture lineup which shows the players by rWAR output, with the highest on the left and moving down, Alvarez is in sixth place, right after Jeff McNeil, who has 90 more PA.

My belief before Spring Training started was that Alvarez was ready to hit in the majors. And while his defense was behind his offense, the total package would be more than enough to justify him being with the big club. And with the club’s top catching instructor in the majors, it made more sense to me for Alvarez to work on his defense with Glenn Sherlock than it did to send him to the minors.

But the Mets acted with the premise that his defense was bad, really, really bad. And that the best way for it to improve was to play everyday in Syracuse. On the surface, that was a defensible idea. The only problem is that because of an early injury to Omar Narvaez, Alvarez got the quick call to the majors. And we got to witness his defense at the highest level, without anyone “interpreting” it for us.

Perhaps the only good thing that came out of yesterday’s game was color commentator Jerry Blevins saying that he didn’t understand why there was so much negativity around Alvarez’ defense because when Alvarez caught him at the minor league camp in 2020, Blevins thought he was very good and that he picked up right away what Blevins wanted him to do behind the plate. Keith Hernandez chimed in that he was impressed with Alvarez’ ability to block balls in the dirt.

If only they would have been this vocal in March. But to be fair to Hernandez, he probably hadn’t seen enough of Alvarez behind the plate – the Mets had him start off at DH in Spring Training – to make that declaration.

We all want players to be well-rounded, to succeed at all phases of the game. But the single-best thing a non-pitcher can bring to the table is offense. And it’s not even close. Now, people are always incredibly picky about defense, especially if you play an up-the-middle position. They want so much to believe that a top defensive player can save 100 runs, just like a top offensive player can score or drive in 100 runs.

But it’s simply not true.

If a player could save 100 runs with his glove, he’d be worth 10 WAR on defense alone. There have only been 55 players in MLB history with a 10 fWAR season and that list of Hall of Famers and steroid guys all got there on the strength of their bats, not their defensive wizardry. The biggest defensive season among these 10-WAR players was 1991 Cal Ripken, whose defensive numbers contributed 31.8 towards his final ranking, while his offense contributed 46.9 towards that 10.6 fWAR season. The year before, Ripken was nearly as good defensively (30.7) but nowhere near as good with the bat (7.4) and the end result was a 6.2 fWAR.

Some people – and this extends from fans on the street to guys in the front office – think if your up-the-middle defenders turn in seasons like 1970 Bud Harrelson that you’re better off than if they turned in a season like 2022 Bo Bichette, who was way below-average defensively.

Harrelson was an All-Star in ’70 and a down ballot MVP candidate based on the strength of his defensive play, which propelled him to a 2.6 fWAR. Bichette was nowhere near Harrelson’s equal defensively last year. He had a (-16 DRS) and (-7) OAA and (-5) RAA yet put up a 4.5 fWAR based on his offensive output.

It’s never a good idea to punt two wins just to play the better defensive player.

It’s a little different with catchers because of their direct work with the pitcher. There has to be comfort in that relationship and that’s not something you can plug into an equation. Most pitchers bend over backwards to praise whichever catchers are on the team. That’s what made Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard’s comments on Wilson Ramos a few years back so notable.

Maybe in private the Mets’ pitchers were expressing hesitancy in working with Alvarez. While that’s a possibility, it flies directly in the face of what Max Scherzer and now Blevins have said after working with him. While we can’t dismiss the idea that pitchers weren’t comfortable throwing to Alvarez, we can’t really put a lot of stock into the idea, either.

It seems much more likely to me that Alvarez’ defensive problems were something the front office just declared because they wanted to match their veteran pitchers with a veteran catcher, offensive production and total value be damned.

Now that he’s getting consistent playing time, we can see for ourselves that Alvarez’ defense is not as bad as it was being portrayed and his offense looks just as good as advertised. Inconsistent playing time and an over-aggressive approach at the plate hurt Alvarez early on, as he was just 1-15 in his first five games.

Since then, Alvarez has a .304/.360/.565 line in 50 PA.

The hits are falling in for him but man, that .261 ISO plays. Boy does it play. Overall, adding the poor start to the recent hot stretch, Alvarez has a 101 OPS+ in 65 PA. You have to go back to Ramos in 2019 to find a Mets catcher with at least 50 PA to have a triple-digit OPS. And since Mike Piazza last did it for the Mets in 2005, the club has had only seven seasons of a catcher with at least 50 PA posting a triple-digit OPS+. And five of those came in seasons with fewer than 300 PA.

We usually think of a generation being 20 years. It’s been a generation since the Mets had a good-hitting catcher, someone who could put up good numbers in multiple years. Travis d’Arnaud would have been that guy if he could have stayed healthy. But now we’re on the precipice of getting that with Alvarez and that’s very exciting.

And whaddya know – his defense isn’t a sink hole, either.