New York Mets Francisco Alvarez finding his Mets footing at plate in down year for catchers — but he’s not ‘100 percent happy’ By Mark W. Sanchez Published Aug. 14, 2026, 7:39 p.m. ET New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez gets on base after an RBI double. Charles Wenzelberg Francisco Alvarez disagreed with the premise of the question.
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“There’s a lot of good guys right now, a lot of good hitting catchers,” the Mets catcher said when asked about the dearth of such players. “[Cal] Raleigh. We have Gabriel Moreno. We have Hunter Goodman. We have [Shea] Langeliers.”
Major league catchers entered play Friday hitting a cumulative .232 with a .689 OPS. Across town, Yankees catchers had batted .198 with a .583 OPS.
With apologies to Alvarez, the position — likely because of the amount of work that goes into defensive and game-planning preparation along with the toll that nine innings of kneeling takes on the body — is a dark hole in many lineups.
