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Francisco Alvarez's difficulties behind the plate reached a crescendo in the days before the Mets sent him down to Triple-A Syracuse.

His inability to get in front of a ball in the dirt, and indecisiveness on a rundown play contributed to a loss early last week in Atlanta.

Then, on Saturday in Philadelphia, a passed ball on Alvarez led to a run.

The 23-year-old also mashed a 452-foot homer on Saturday night, showing the immense potential he still has.

Overall, Alvarez is hitting just .236/.319/.333 with three home runs and three doubles in 138 plate appearances over 35 games this season. And his struggles at the plate and behind it simply became too much for the Mets to ignore, resulting in his demotion on Sunday.

"Alvy's a really talented player. He got to the big leagues at such a young age, performed at such a high level immediately that it's difficult to remember sometimes he is still young," President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said on Tuesday at Citi Field. "He's an age that good prospects -- industry-leading prospects -- are still in Double-A. And he's been playing in the big leagues for two-plus years.

"So this is not unusual. And I think getting him a little bit of a chance to reset, to work on both sides of the game -- and we do think there are performance improvements that are needed on both sides of the game. Giving him an opportunity to do that in a less pressurized environment where he's not doing it in front of 45,000 people every night, against really good pitching, catching pitchers with really good stuff. We thought this was the right time to do that, both for him and for the team as a whole."

Alvarez missed the first month of the season after needing surgery for a fractured hamate bone in his left hand.

It was the second time in as many years that he missed significant time due to an injury -- Alvarez missed a chunk of time in 2024 after tearing a ligament in his left thumb.

While it's possible the recovery from the hamate surgery has impacted Alvarez's power a bit, it's not an extra-base hit surge the Mets are seeking from him in the minors before calling him back up.

"There are certainly some goals, and yes, they're not statistical," Stearns explained. "And they're on both sides of the ball. We want to see him get back to the level of player that we know he can be -- that's what he wants to do as well."

Stearns also discussed Alvarez's receiving difficulties, and whether or not he could be carrying his offensive struggles with him behind the dish.

"I think for any player, when you struggle on one side of the ball, sometimes it can impact the other side of the ball," Stearns said. "And I don't know if that is happening, but it would be natural if it would. Alvy's really competitive. He cares a lot, and sometimes that level of emotion -- that competitive spirit -- can be tough to corral.

"There are things I think we can help him with -- on both sides of the ball -- receiving among them, to get him back to the level that we're accustomed to seeing."

What we learned as Christian Koss homer isn't enough in Giants' loss to Marlins originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — After a weekend of beautiful weather and a much-needed off day at home, the Giants returned to Oracle Park on Tuesday and immediately got reminded that June in San Francisco is a different animal. The first night against the Miami Marlins was one of the coldest of the season, and the bats went cold in a 4-2 loss. 

It was an extremely quiet offensive night, but Jung Hoo Lee drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth to bring the crowd back to life. After a Willy Adames strikeout, red-hot third baseman Casey Schmitt hit into a game-ending double play. 

Justin Verlander left with a 3-0 deficit, but the lower-leverage relievers did a nice job of keeping the game close. Spencer Bivens ran into trouble in the eighth inning of a two-run game when the Marlins got back-to-back no-out singles, but he struck out Kyle Stowers and Eric Wagamn before getting Liam Hicks to fly out to deep center. 

Joey Lucchesi put two on in the ninth, but got out of it. The lineup, however, never could catch up. 

The game was the first in a two-week stretch against some of MLB’s worst teams, one the Giants must take advantage of. Following this series, they visit the Chicago White Sox, who are 25-55. After a four-game series at Arizona, they’ll visit the Athletics for the first time in Sacramento. 

First Time Back

Verlander is just the third Giants pitcher — joining Ross Stripling and Slick Castleman (yes, Slick Castleman) — to go his first 11 starts without getting a win, and that continued Tuesday. The Marlins scored two in the second and one in the third, and while Verlander retired eight of the final nine he faced, the high early pitch count led to him departing after the top of the fifth. 

Verlander was charged with three earned in his return from the paternity list. He struck out five, but when the Marlins were rallying, he had some trouble putting them away with two strikes. Through a dozen starts, Verlander has a 4.52 ERA. If you take out his rookie season and the season he had Tommy John, Verlander has never won fewer than five games as a big leaguer, but he’ll head into the final days of June still looking for his first in orange and black. 

Second Chance

The Giants entered the night with just three homers in 250 at-bats from their second basemen, but Christian Koss smoked a breaking ball into the first row in the fifth, cutting the deficit to one. The homer was Koss’ second in the big leagues, joining the grand slam he hit on May 13. 

Koss and Brett Wisely will split time at second base for now, with Tyler Fitzgerald getting a mental reset in Triple-A and Schmitt needed at third base for at least a couple more weeks. Manager Bob Melvin went with the righty against righty Cal Quantrill because he has allowed an OPS over 1.000 to right-handed hitters this season, and it paid off. 

The Giants nearly tied the game later in the inning, but Matt Williams sent Rafael Devers home on an Heliot Ramos double and he was thrown out by 15 feet — with team RBI leader Wilmer Flores on deck. Devers has been dealing with some groin tightness and didn’t look all that comfortable after reaching the plate.

Still Searching

Lee had a 15 at-bat hitless streak going after a flyball to center in the second inning, but he caught a break the next time up. Teams have started to shift their shortstops over as far as they can because Lee hits so many grounders up the middle, and his hard grounder was headed for shortstop Otto Lopez’s glove when it hit Quantrill’s leg. Lee ended up with a single, his first hit since last Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians. 

Lee has been dropped in the order on this homestand, a reaction to what has become a lengthy slump, but he did reach base twice, something he had done just once in his previous eight starts.

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The Mets' current 1-9 stretch has had a lot to do with the struggles of the starting pitching, which has often put the team in deep holes early in games.

But lately, the struggles of the offense -- specifically the bottom four spots in the lineup -- have come to the forefront.

While the Mets are getting strong-to-elite production from the first five slots of the batting order (usually some combination of Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo,Juan Soto,Pete Alonso, andJeff McNeil) the six-through-nine slots have been feeble.

Ronny Mauricio (60 OPS+), Jared Young (71 OPS+), Tyrone Taylor (78 OPS+), Luis Torrens (80 OPS+), and Brett Baty (90 OPS+) have left a lot to be desired -- perhaps coloring how the Mets will go about things at the trade deadline in just over a month.

"Any time you go through a stretch like this, it's added information," president of baseball operations David Stearnssaid on Tuesday at Citi Field. "And so we're learning about our team. We saw a lot of really good things through the first two-plus months of the season, and now we're seeing the flipside of that. I still think we have a really good team. I think we're certainly much better than we've played over these last 10 days, 12 days.

"But any time you go through a stretch, it forces you to evaluate the team. Take it in as information, add that to what we already know and help us plot forward. Does it expose any singular spot? I don't think so right now. But it does add to our information about our team, which at this time of year can be valuable."

While the aforementioned five players are struggling badly right now, it's likely that Mauricio will be demoted to Triple-A Syracuse when Mark Vientos returns -- potentially as soon as this Thursday or Friday.

Additionally, Young will likely see his at-bats dramatically reduced (or possibly lose his roster spot) once Jesse Winker is back. And Winker is expected to begin a rehab assignment before the end of the weekend.

That's part of the calculus as Stearns forms a plan for how to attack the deadline.

"We have some players who are getting healthy who I think will help there," he noted. "I also think the players who have struggled in our lineup over the last month largely are better offensive players than we've seen so far. They themselves have demonstrated that over periods of this season.

"Clearly this month, however you want to define it, our bottom half of the lineup has not produced in a way that's helping us score runs. This is a team game, and so it's really tough to rely on three or four or even five guys to carry the load every single night. We know that to be a really good offensive team -- we certainly have the potential and the aspiration to be a really good offensive team -- we need one through nine contributing more nights than not.

One of the pain points for the Mets has been third base, but it's possible Baty harnesses something or that Vientos plays a solid enough defensive third base to stabilize the hot corner.

Either way, it will be surprising if the Mets don't bolster the offense via trade between now and the July 31 deadline.

An obvious target would be Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins, who is a pending free agent. But that would be contingent on Baltimore (currently 34-44 and in last place in the AL East) coming to the conclusion that their season isn't salvageable.

Similarly, a bunch of interesting names could be available if the Diamondbacks (40-38 but dealing with a season-ending injury to ace Corbin Burnes and a recent injury to MVP candidate Corbin Carroll) decide to sell.

Starting pitcher Merrill Kelly and third baseman/designated hitter Eugenio Suarez are both free agents at the end of the season, and would figure to be on the move if Arizona becomes a seller.

As Stearns explained, though, teams have been waiting longer than ever to chart a course.

"It's still really tough to tell," he said. "With our current playoff format, so many teams don't really decide how they're gonna approach the deadline until mid-July."

Stearns added: "Right now, I think it's very difficult to tell which teams are where. And we'll get more information as we go."

On the latest episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo recap a terrible week for the Mets against the Braves and Phillies, while looking for light at the other end of the tunnel at Citi Field.

First up, the guys go through the team’s problems, including shaky starting pitching, lack of DH production, the revolving door at third base, the center field issue, and inconsistent scoring overall.

Later, Connor and Joe cover the Farm in all directions, including those moving down – Francisco Alvarez and Luisangel Acuña – and those moving up – Jacob Reimer, Carson Benge, and ColinHouck.

The show then wraps up by giving away Mets Pod hats and checking the Mailbag for questions answered about the current roster and the possibility of trading for Eugenio Suarez.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.