Ballparks can no longer seem to hold Francisco Alvarez.
Alvarez, now the No. 1 prospect in baseball, blasted a tape-measure home run literally out of Coca-Cola Park in the Syracuse Mets’ 6-1 road loss to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in a Triple-A matchup on Wednesday night, according to the team’s website.
“Oh my word! Where is this gonna land?” Syracuse play-by-play man Evan Stockton exclaimed watching Alvarez’s prodigious home run. “This ball is a mile gone. I didn’t see it land …
“Francisco Alvarez, facing a pitcher who struck out 10 batters tonight, on the first pitch he saw, may have just hit it out of the stadium.”
The 20-year-old hit the first pitch he saw in the seventh inning deep and over left field stands for this fourth Triple-A home run. It was his only hit of the game off Lehigh starter Michael Plassmeyer, who finished with 11 strikeouts. Alvarez finished 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
Upgrading at catcher was one of the things the Mets didn’t accomplish at the trade deadline. Maybe Alvarez makes it a moot point, if he keeps displaying the power at Triple-A that we have all seen throughout his career.
Alvarez, who is hitting .197 with a .822 OPS since being promoted in early July, has turned it on of late. He was hitting .267 with a 1.039 OPS over his last 37 plate appearances before Wednesday with three home runs, two doubles, seven walks and nine RBI. Wednesday’s blast was his fourth home run in the past nine games.
The Mets, who are expected to get starting catcher James McCann off the injured list soon, have received limited offensive production out of McCann, Tomas Nido and Patrick Mazeika at catcher. However, they failed to acquire top catching targets Christian Velazquez or Willson Contreras at the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
Even so, Mets general manager Billy Eppler didn’t seem keen on the idea that Alvarez — whom the team has wanted to work on his play behind the plate — playing a role for the Mets down the stretch when asked by reporters about not addressing catcher outside the organization.
“I don’t think he’s at a point where he’s going to factor in right now,” Eppler said.
Maybe Alvarez can force their hand in September, if he keeps hitting balls out of sight like he did Wednesday night.