Alvarez Keeping Stance After Late-Season Success, Tong Focusing on Off-speed Pitches

A large New York Mets contingent was back in action on Friday at the club’s spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida. With the first full squad workout just three days away, there’s plenty of information and news to sort through as the Mets continue preparing for the 2026 season.

Alvarez Drops Weight, Keeping Same Stance

The 2025 campaign was a tale of two halves for Francisco Alvarez. He fractured the hamate bone in his left hand during spring training and didn’t make his season debut until April 25. Alvarez ultimately slashed .236/.319/.333 over 138 plate appearances with three home runs.

He was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse on June 22 as a result of his struggles and later came back up to the majors on July 21. Alvarez’ bad injury luck continued in August, though, as he injured his right thumb sliding into second base at the MLB Little League Classic vs. the Seattle Mariners on August 17 and was subsequently placed on the 10-day IL.

During his rehab appearance in Syracuse, Alvarez fractured his left pinky on a hit-by-pitch on August 27. He was activated just a week later, though, and remained healthy for the final few weeks of the regular season.

Alvarez’ option to Triple-A in June ended up paying dividends in the long run, however, as he batted .276/.360/.561 during the second half and had a season-long OPS of .787 when it was all said and done.

Per Newsday’s Laura Albanese, Alvarez is sticking with the batting stance that he re-adopted upon being recalled from Syracuse last summer after posting inflated numbers with that change. Furthermore, the 24-year-old stated that he dropped somewhere in the range of eight to 10 pounds by focusing on his nutrition, and he also noted that he worked with Mets director of hitting Jeff Albert during the offseason as well.

Tong Turning Focus Towards Off-speed Pitches

After dipping his toes into the big-league waters and debuting for the Mets last September, posting a 7.71 ERA across five starts and 18 2/3 innings, top prospect Jonah Tong told reporters that he’s focused on upping his confidence in both his curveball and slider after feeling good about where he stood with his fastball and changeup this past season.

“I think just continuing to develop the off-speeds,” Tong said, per a video from SNY. “Last year I was really confident in the fastball and changeup. Now it’s just about making sure I can have that same level of confidence with my other two offerings.”

Named the MiLB Pitching Prospect of the Year in 2025 after logging a 1.58 ERA with 179 strikeouts over a combined 113 2/3 innings between Syracuse and Double-A Binghamton, Tong threw his curveball and slider just 12.4 percent and 2.7 percent of the time, respectively, in the majors while leaning heavily on his four-seam fastball (57.4 percent) and changeup (27.5 percent), as he noted.

Ranked as the No. 23 prospect in baseball entering the year by Baseball Prospectus, Tong will likely open with Syracuse and continue to get some experience under his belt at the highest level of the minor leagues before emerging as a rotation option for New York down the road.

Tong isn’t switching up his mindset in his first big-league camp either, stating that he’s concentrated on having fun and soaking up as much knowledge as possible.

“The mindset stays the same,” he said. “I’m just going to go out there and have a lot of fun, enjoy these people and try to learn as much as I possibly can, and I think everything else will just fall as it may.”

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