Francisco Alvarez ready to make good on lofty Mets promise

Francisco Alvarez takes big swings, both with his bat and in charting goals.Coming off an underwhelming offensive season, the young Mets catcher has pledged he will be a better and more selective hitter in 2025.“I’m working on a lot of things in my hitting.… I have changed a lot of things,” Alvarez said last weekend at the fanfest at Citi Field.

“So I’m going to have more plate discipline, and I’m going to have better numbers, too.”Alvarez arrived in the major leagues for good in 2023 with a minor league reputation as a mighty bat and questionable glove.As it has turned out, his defense behind the plate has been terrific — working well with pitchers and ranking ninth last season in catcher framing runs despite missing significant time — while his swing has run hot and cold.In 2023, he did not hit for average (.209) but compensated by slugging 25 home runs in 123 games.

In 2024, the contact and average issues remained while the power (11 homers in 100 games) regressed.It is possible Alvarez was compromised by a torn ligament in his left thumb that cost him seven weeks of the season, but Alvarez reiterated Saturday that his thumb was not to blame for his offensive output.Regardless of the source of his struggles in a year that he finished with a .710 OPS, the 23-year-old is confident his third extended season in Queens will be his breakout campaign.“I learned a lot from last year, so it’s going to be way different this year,” said Alvarez, who will have to perform better against breaking pitches.Last season, Alvarez crushed fastballs and was OK against offspeed pitches.

He was exposed, though, by breaking balls, against which he hit .159 and swung and missed 35.9 percent of the time.He was particularly weak against sliders, and it is no mystery that he saw a slider 22.4 percent of the time in 2023 and 27.8 percent of the time in 2024.Despite that, Alvarez, swings hard — hitting coach Eric Chavez would like him to be more controlled at t...