Francisco Alvarez will go from a minor league laser show to The Show.
The Mets are recalling their young catcher, a source said Sunday, after he laid waste to Triple-A pitching for nearly a month.
Alvarez, who was optioned amid offensive and defensive struggles June 22, reported to Syracuse and made adjustments on both sides of the ball that he hopes will translate to the majors.
In 19 games with Syracuse, Alvarez demolished 11 home runs — including another one Sunday, which was his seventh in his past six games.
He did not receive a chance to pad that total, leaving the game in Norfolk for a pinch hitter in the ninth inning as a hint he was near a summons.
He will leave Syracuse with a 1.129 OPS.
Alvarez is expected to rejoin the Mets on Monday for the series opener with the Angels and likely will share time with Luis Torrens, whose bat has begun to come around but whose ceiling is nowhere near Alvarez’s.
The former No. 1 prospect in all of baseball had arrived in 2023, when he smoked 25 homers in 123 games before offensive issues and injuries began last season.
This year, both his offense and defense had taken steps back in about two months of games following spring hamate surgery.
After hitting just three home runs in 35 major league games this season with a retooled swing, Alvarez accepted the demotion and tried to marry the swing he displayed in 2023 with the revamped cut he debuted this season.
“I’ve been working on putting both together,” Alvarez said earlier this month. “I feel more powerful.”
And he has felt more potent behind the plate.
Alvarez had struggled in various finer points of catching this season — a surprise, considering how strong he looked in his first two seasons — but the Mets have been hopeful a setup tweak has restored Alvarez’s defensive game.
Former catcher and Syracuse bench coach J.P. Arencibia helped advise Alvarez to dig his back toe in the dirt while squatting from the one-knee stance, which the Mets believe has helped Alvarez get in better position to frame pitches.
Without the catcher who has long been believed to be a franchise cornerstone, the Mets have not received much offensively from Torrens or Hayden Senger.
Torrens, though, generally has been a force defensively and teamed with Francisco Lindor to throw out Noelvi Marte at second base in Sunday’s seventh inning.
He remains among the game’s best at cutting down runners and has thrown out 14 of 34 attempted base stealers this season.
The 29-year-old has not hit, though, and owns a .606 OPS.
He did come up with a strong, eight-pitch at-bat against Tony Santillan in the eighth inning Sunday in which he managed to make contact.
Torrens’ ground ball drove in Juan Soto for the go-ahead run in a 3-2 victory over the Reds.
“I’ve been feeling a lot more comfortable at the plate,” Torrens said through interpreter Alan Suriel. “I’m putting in a lot of good work. When you put in that work, the results start to eventually come around.”
