Twenty-Three Skiddoo: Francisco Álvarez

[Edgy MD]

If you thought it was crazy of ZiPS to predict 3.2 WAR for Brett Baty — a rookie who is not yet at the top of anybody's depth chart — how about them predicting 3.1 more for me? That's 6.3 wins out of two guys unlikely to even appear until after April.



But that's how things roll. They move along slowly — frustratingly so — and then change happens quicker than lightning. And that's how I hit. Slow, slow, slow, KAPOWIE!



I'm Francisco Álvarez, a Venezuelan catcher with the youth and prodigious strength of Bam-Bam Rubble. What's unknown is if I'll develop enough Pebbles Flintstone-like grace and elegance to stick behind the plate, and when I'll be a fixture in the Mets lineup. But what's absolutely known is that I'm going to hurt some baseballs. Good God, am I going to hurt some baseballs.



So, there it is. The gap between the known and the unknown. Who better to fill in that gap than a bunch of know-it-alls on a stupid baseball forum?



[FIMG=407]https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2022/10/05/c85fede5-42a6-4941-ac9d-385816f0626c/thumbnail/640x360/988616d19f679adf05f8e53cb60fa1a2/francisco-alvarez-mets-getty.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=343]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/09/30/multimedia/30mlb-alvarez-subtop-1-14b4/30mlb-alvarez-subtop-1-14b4-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/FIMG]

[FIMG=343]https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/6w3yDp92r5hchwImgBOZOg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTQyNw--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2022-09/edb40200-4072-11ed-9ea7-38fcd1cfbd48[/FIMG] [FIMG=407]https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_5766,h_3243,x_0,y_689/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/3/01g08cbrfkwtakb96e49.jpg[/FIMG]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Unless there's an injury to Nido or the other guy whose name I haven't memorized yet, I don't think we'll see Alvarez in Queens before June or July. The Mets seem serious about getting him more minor-league experience behind the plate.



He'll go north with the Mets in 2024 as the starting catcher.