Mets Notes: Francisco Alvarez ‘working hard’ to break out; updates on Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas

Ahead of Saturday night's game in Colorado, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza gave updates on a few players...

What's next for Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas

Manaea came out of his first rehab start on Friday night, "all good," the manager said, adding the left-hander will throw again on Tuesday or Wednesday for the High-A Brooklyn. "See how the next couple of days goes," Mendoza said.

The southpaw had a rough go of it, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits and a hit by pitch in 1.2 innings while throwing 36 pitches (26 strikes).

Montas will make his fourth rehab start on Sunday for Triple-A Syracuse, and the plan is for him to throw 80-85 pitches. While Montas is "getting closer to normal" with the high pitch count, Mendoza said the 32-year-old will likely make another start at Triple-A before he is ready to be activated from the IL.

"After he gets through this one, we'll see where he's at," the manager said. "But I don't think this is gonna be his last one."

Results have not been there for the right-hander, as he has allowed runs in all of his previous outings (the first two coming with Brooklyn). On Tuesday, he surrendered five runs on eight hits (including four home runs) and a walk in 4.0 frames, throwing 61 pitches (43 strikes).

When asked what point he might start to care about the results from these rehab appearances, Mendoza said it is "still early, especially for Manaea."

"With Montas, I'll say we'll see how [Sunday] goes and then we'll start to look more at results and all that," he said. "More about how they are bouncing back. For Sean, after the first one, it's too early for him."

Francisco Alvarez still grinding

The contact has been there for the 23-year-old catcher – a 92.8 mph average exit velocity and a 47 percent hard-hit rate – but the results haven't quite been there – just four extra-base hits and a .301 slugging percentage – through his first 93 at-bats of the season.

"We haven't seen him driving the ball with authority," Mendoza said of Alvarez, who was not in the lineup for Saturday's game. "I feel like he's on and off. There's been some games where I feel like he's put himself in a good position to make swing decisions, and you see the barrel and the bat path coming through the zone. But then there's also been games where he's late.

"We just gotta continue to grind, continue to help him. And hopefully he gets there because he's too good of a player, too good of a hitter. And, obviously, we know the power is there, but we just haven't seen that yet."

About three weeks ago, Mendoza said he was seeing Alvarez get beat on fastballs quite a bit. The skipper indicated he's seen some improvement in that area, but not consistent strides.

"I feel like last week he was making progress," he said. "[Friday] night, he looked like he was late with some of the fastballs. Part of some of the inconsistency that we've seen from him. But he's working hard, that's the one thing with him: He's such a hard worker and he's always looking for ways to get better.... And we gotta get him there."

Alvarez batted .315 with a .534 slugging percentage against 690 fastballs a season ago. After Friday's game, those numbers were down to .264 and .302, which are down 46 points and eight points from three weeks ago. But there have been improvements in his expected numbers, which could indicate some of the work is paying off, even if the results haven't been there just yet. His xBA on fastballs is up to .225 from .213 on May 19 and xSLG is up to .373 from .299.

Alvarez also "made a very significant swing change in the offseason," president of baseball operations David Stearns mentioned in late May, something that could be impacting his production, which was further hampered by a stint on the IL.

In 27 games on the year, Alvarez is batting .237 (the same mark he finished with in 100 games last season) with a .625 OPS (down from .710 a year ago).

Bullpen workload on skipper's mind

Manage the personalities and vibe in the clubhouse, manage the lineup, manage the in-game strategy, and manage the bullpen's usage. Those are the four big areas a big league manager can show they are worth their salt.

"We've been using them pretty hard," Mendoza said when asked about the workload of Ryne Stanek, Huascar Brazobán, and Reed Garrett.

Of course, the hitters could do something to help the relievers out.

"When you look at Reed Garrett, I feel like the past week he's been on and off, on and off. That's not sustainable," he said. "This is something that we gotta be careful here. Same with Stanek, the past week I feel like [he's been used] every other day. I'm not gonna complain, but we're playing so many tight games that every time they're available, we're using them. Same thing with Brazoban.

"That's the balance here that we're gonna have to watch those guys closely."