NY Mets' Francisco Alvarez had a speedy rebound after a change in his bat speed

New York Mets' young backstop Francisco Alvarez had shown a ton of promise in both 2023 and 2024. While he only turned in about league-average numbers, the bar was set high for the 23-year-old catcher. But the first half of the season couldn't have gone much worse for Alvarez. He only hit .236/.319/.333 with a .294 wOBA, and 90 wRC+ over 138 plate appearances. He had an above-average 9.4% walk rate, but that's about all the positives to speak of from his production at the plate. It also didn't help that he struck out 27.5% of the time. Despite an exit velocity of 92.9 MPH, he put up an isolated slugging percentage of .098.

Alvarez's performance got so bad, the Mets demoted him to Triple-A. Upon his return a month later, he looked like a new batter. Throughout his final 139 trips to the plate, Alvarez turned in a much improved .276/.360/.561 line. He hit nine home runs while his isolated slugging percentage was approaching .300, at .285. Alvarez walked slightly more often, with a 10.1% BB%, and struck out at an improved 25.2% rate. His wOBA sat just under .400, clocking in at .391, resulting in a wRC+ of 157. The only real downside to his second half was missing part of August due to a pinky finger fracture.

Arguably, the biggest contribution to his second-half success was his massive uptick in bat speed. Alvarez's bat speed up until he was sent to Triple-A was 73.5 MPH. That is identical to how fast he swung the bat in 2024. His fast swing rate was just 34.8%, a step back from 2024 at 37.3% and a significant decline from 2023 at 48.3%.

However, Alvarez's bat speed looked a lot more like his 2023 numbers than what fans saw during the first half of 2025. His bat speed, once he was recalled, clocked in at 74.5 MPH, which was nearly identical to Brett Baty's (74.3 MPH) and Pete Alonso's (74.2 MPH), and led Mets players. His fast wing rate increased by over 10% to 47.6%. That also led all Mets batters.

Swinging the bat faster and swinging and missing less helped Francisco Alvarez breakout.

The other thing that makes Alvarez's uptick in bat speed impressive is that he did it without having to make his swing barely any longer to get it. His swing length came in at 7.2 feet prior to getting optioned. Once he was called back up, his swing length was 7.3 MPH. Another massive positive is that Alvarez achieved a faster swing while also improving his swing and miss.

Before he was sent to Triple-A, Alvarez owned a whiff rate of 33.7%. For reference, that was 10% worse than the league average of 23.7%. After the Mets recalled him, his whiff percentage fell to 30.1%. While it may not be a huge drop, it's pretty obvious that swinging and missing less and making more loud contact is typically a recipe for success.

Keep in mind that Alvarez did all of this while still nursing a thumb injury that he played through. He was playing through the injury for about the last six weeks of the season, and is only getting surgery now. Hopefully, the surgery does not affect his bat speed improvements, but based on how long he played through the injury, it may actually further increase it once his thumb UCL is properly repaired and back at full strength. Alvarez's start to the year was definitely poor, but it's nice to see him right the ship and end the year on an extremely high note.