For almost a week, Francisco Alvarez and Gary Sanchez were Mets teammates.
It came a little over a month after Alvarez was called up to the majors — this time, seemingly for good — and it ended with Sanchez being designated for assignment after yet another failed tenure with an organization.
And when scouts say, as one American League scout did recently, that “You don’t see the kind of power from a catcher that Alvarez has very often. It’s eye-opening,’’ it’s hard not to think of the same AL scout having a similar view of Sanchez when he burst onto the scene in 2016 with the Yankees.
When reminded of the similarities between the two players, the scout insisted there was more reason to be optimistic about Alvarez than there was about Sanchez at the same point of their careers.
“I feel like we’ve seen Alvarez already make more adjustments in some areas than we did from Gary,’’ the scout said. “Look, we all thought Sanchez was going to figure it out a little better than he did, and we don’t know about Alvarez’s staying power, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him.”
It’s why Alvarez was considered by many to be arguably the top prospect in the game heading into the season.
And when the Mets return to Citi Field on Tuesday, although they’ll be a team searching for its identity — at just .500 through the first 54 games of the season — they’ll also be a team with one of the hottest young hitters in the game.
Alvarez began to show what the Mets were waiting for during their last homestand, which he finished by going 4-for-10 with a pair of homers in his last three games in Queens.
He continued it on the road, where the 21-year-old kept up his strong showing at the plate with an 8-for-20 tear — including three homers, two doubles and eight RBIs — in five games.
He finished the trip by being moved up from ninth in the batting order to the No. 2 spot, and it’s hard to envision Alvarez moving back down if he keeps up anything close to the pace he’s been on since May 6.
In that 17-game span, Alvarez has gone 19-for-57, with five doubles, seven homers, 15 RBIs, six walks and a dozen strikeouts, good for an OPS of 1.166.
He’s raised his OPS from .506 to .885 and displayed why the Mets have been so high on him.
“The potential was always there,” a National League scout said. “It’s why a lot of people had him as the best [prospect] in the game [coming into the year]. He’s got power you don’t see very often.”
The Mets appear to be prepared to hand the job to Alvarez as Omar Narvaez approaches his return from the strained calf that has sidelined him for most of the season.
Narvaez had his rehab assignment moved to Triple-A Syracuse on Monday. He’s still at least a week away from returning to the lineup.
They chose to go with Tomas Nido over Sanchez after Nido’s dry-eye syndrome was addressed, but it will be difficult to keep Alvarez out of the lineup with the way he’s hitting.
“His ceiling is as high as I thought it was before he got called up last year,’’ the NL scout said. “Maybe there aren’t as many walks as you’d like yet or some other minor details, but the stuff that’s already there isn’t going away and that’s what makes him so valuable.”
While questions surrounded his defense, he’s been better at certain aspects behind the plate than some observers expected.
He’s already shown an above-average framing ability, as well as blocking and teammates have praised his work ethic.
What Alvarez hasn’t done, at least at the major league level, is figure out how to hit left-handed pitching. He has a .519 OPS versus lefties this year, compared to 1.019 against right-handers.
“That’s something I expect will change soon,’’ said the AL scout.
