Dodgers will not forget Mets catcher's bizarre (and way-too-early) trash talk

It's widely expected that the 2025 season, at least in the National League, will be dominated by the Dodgers, Braves, and Mets. The Cubs probably have a dog in the fight too, given how wide-open the NL Central is, but LA, Atlanta, and Chicago are expected to have the three best records in the league, per PECOTA.

The Dodgers and Mets certainly made the greatest strides, maybe of anyone in baseball, in terms of offseason additions as well. While it's not a perfect one-to-one comparison, the Dodgers' greatest victory had to be their signing of Roki Sasaki, while Juan Soto blew Shohei Ohtani's $700 million contract out of the water to go to Queens.

It wouldn't be surprising if we see another Dodgers-Mets NLCS in October, and one that might be a total slugfest just like last year.

However, Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez got a little too big for his britches this week when he boldly proclaimed the Mets' lineup was already better than the Dodgers'. You sure about that, buddy?

Francisco Alvarez thinks Mets' lineup is better than Dodgers' in 2025

The Mets have added two bats to their lineup: Soto and Jose Siri, and they re-signed Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker. The Dodgers added Hyeseong Kim and Michael Conforto, and re-signed Teoscar Hernández and Kiké Hernández.

While we'll acknowledge none of the Dodgers' additions or re-additions could out-slug Soto, (Teoscar) Hernández easily had a better 2024 season than Alonso, New York's second-best addition of the offseason. The Dodgers still have Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Will Smith — and those guys certainly give Dodgers fans a lot more reason to be reassured about the lineup than the likes of Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, Tyrone Taylor, and even Alvarez himself.

It's likely that the Mets getting Soto has led them to overestimate themselves. It was a mammoth signing, sure, and a clear win for the Mets, but outside of him, their 2025 lineup looks almost identical to their 2024 lineup, and those 2024 Mets were playing below .500 baseball by the end of June.

There's no doubt the Mets will be good this season, but it's ridiculous for anyone to think they'll be better than the Dodgers, who have three MVPs and have basically constructed their lineup around a singular question: "can they hit 20+ homers in a season?"

So Alvarez can probably keep dreaming. He'll probably have to hope he didn't just jinx his club, too.