February 14, 2025 10:59 AM : Alvarez retooled his swing mechanics at Maven Baseball Lab this offseason on the recommendation of J.D. Martinez, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports. "I think I can put the ball in the air more, hit the ball to the opposite way more," Alvarez said this week. "I'm very powerful; I don't have to pull every pitch."
Analysis: The 23-year-old catcher is coming off a disappointing 2024 campaign at the plate, managing just 11 homers and a .710 OPS in 100 big-league games after slugging 25 long balls over 123 games for the Mets in 2023. Alvarez's decline was fueled by an increase in his groundball rate (career-high 52.2 percent) and decrease in his hard-hit rate (30.8 percent, nearly a five percent drop from the year before). While at the lab, Alvarez focused on tweaking his stance and lower-body movement to eliminate a tendency to pull off the ball rather than staying square and driving pitches back up the middle. "He wants to be a complete hitter, not just a power hitter," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. "In order for anyone to be a complete hitter, you need to use the whole field." Alvarez's career .221 batting average in the majors doesn't suggest he'll suddenly be challenging for batting titles, but there is plenty of room for improvement in his 2024 performance.