Matthew Allan/Photo by Ed Delany, MMO
The Mets announced Saturday that the team has added RHP Matthew Allan and C Francisco Alvarez to the Club Player Pool. Both players will report to the Brooklyn site and put the 60-man pool at capacity.
Allan and Alvarez, who both made their professional debuts in 2019, easily become the top prospects at the Alternate Site. They are currently ranked by MLB Pipeline as the organization’s fifth and second-best minor leaguers, respectively.
Allan, a first-round talent who slipped to the Mets in the third round of last year’s draft due to signability concerns, kicked off his career with 10.1 innings split between the GCL Mets and Brooklyn Cyclones, joining the latter for their playoff push.
The 6’3″ right-hander owns a potentially plus fastball and curveball with the breaker inducing one of the best spin rates in the organization. He generally sits in the low-to-mid 90s but has crept up to 97-98 mph in shorter stints.
Allan would have opened the 2020 minor league season with Low-A Columbia.
Alvarez, 18, spent his debut season in the GCL and with Kingsport. After receiving a near-$3 million bonus out of Venezuela, he hit .312/.407/.510 in 42 games.
As a catcher with only rookie-level experience, Alvarez’ career could go down a million different paths over the next three-to-four years. For now, he has a strong arm and good motions behind the plate and good raw power for his age.
Alvarez could have made the jump to Columbia this season but likely would have spent time in extended spring training before heading to Brooklyn.
Saturday’s additions are notable for a couple of reasons, including the fact that the Mets had seemed to be against adding their top prospects to the Pool.
And with the group now at its maximum, any further additions would require a removal, which can only be done by risking the outright loss of that player (waivers, trade, release).
“This team is built to win,” General manager Brodie Van Wagenen said at the beginning of Summer Camp. “Our intention is to have players in camp that we think are capable of helping us at the major league level this year.”
Adding Allan and Alvarez also makes them eligible to be traded immediately before the Aug. 31 deadline.
Non-60-man players can be traded but must be included as a player to be named later and cannot join his new organization until after the season.
With in-person scouting outlawed at each team’s Alternate Site for safety reasons, MLB is in the process of creating a video and data sharing system that teams can opt into. Getting updated metrics and film on two of their top prospects could allow the Mets to make a move if they are so inclined.
Whether they are traded or not, the hands-on instruction that Allan and Alvarez will receive in Brooklyn is not comparable to anything they could be doing at home.
