Photo Credit: CDN Sports Max

With the Australian Baseball League season set to begin next week, the Sydney Blue Sox have announced that Mets big-time catcher prospect Francisco Alvarez’s season will be over before it even begins.

According to a press release from Blue Sox CEO/Owner Adam Dobb,

“The hottest prospect in the NY Mets system is a young Venezuelan man who has spent the last twelve months in the USA, eight of these due to the Venezuelan border not letting him back in from the USA due to COVID. As a young man, he has succumbed to home sickness and as a mental health preventative measure, the Mets have sent him home to be with his family for Xmas. Unfortunately for us this means NO Francisco for our 2020/21 campaign. Another young man that we wish all the very best in his search for MLB success, I’m sure we will hear more about this name in the future.”

While Alvarez’s removal from winter ball participation is an unwelcome development, the mental health and emotional health of the team’s top prospect is certainly of greater importance here. We at Metsmerized Online wish him and his family well.

While Alvarez will no longer be participating in the ABL for the Sydney Blue Sox, fellow Mets prospects, infielder Carlos Cortes, infielder Manny Rodriguez, right-handed pitcher Adam Oller, and left-handed pitcher Andrew Mitchell are all confirmed to be in Australia and are completing their government mandated fourteen day quarantine.

The ABL season will begin on December 17th with the Blue Sox playing against the Melbourne Aces. The Blue Sox schedule can be found here.