The Mets still have a lot of work to do when it comes to building their farm system back up after the recent Edwin Diaz/Robinson Cano and Marcus Stroman trades shipped four of their best prospects to the Mariners and Blue Jays, but they're making strides.

INF Andres Gimenez dominated in the AFL and could be getting close to his big league debut. The Mets also have four younger blue chip prospects, including recently-drafted RHP Matthew Allan and 3B Brett Baty, and INF Ronny Mauricio.

The Mets' other highly-touted prospect who is still years away is C Francisco Alvarez, who is MLB Pipeline's pick for New York's breakout prospect of 2020.

"The Venezuela native is already perhaps the best pure hitter in New York's system, with defensive chops behind the plate that could make him an impactful two-way catcher," MLB Pipeline wrote about Alvarez.

The 18-year-old Alvarez, who signed with the Mets in July of 2018 for $2.9 million as an international free agent and cracked Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list in September, made his professional debut in 2019 and raked.

As a 17-year-old this past season, Alvarez hit .312/.407/.510 with seven home runs and 10 doubles in 42 games between the Rookie level Gulf Cost League and Rookie level Kingsport of the Appalachian League.

"A compact swing and solid approach allow Alvarez to hit to all fields, and he has plenty of raw power to continue to tap into," MLB.com recently wrote in their scouting report on Alvarez. "He's a below-average runner, but also isn't a base-clogger. Alvarez's defensive game is behind his bat, but club officials have zero doubt that he can stay behind the plate long term. He has a strong arm and some solid actions behind the plate, but he'll have to improve his overall receiving."

Ranked No. 5 by Joe DeMayo on SNY's Mets Top 20 prospects list, Alvarez still has a long way to go before he makes his Citi Field debut. If he moves very fast, he could debut by 2022. But a much more likely scenario is that he will be ready at some point during the 2023 season.

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