Catcher Francisco Alvarez, ranked baseball's top prospect by MLB Pipeline, is set to join the New York Mets on Friday ahead of their biggest series of the season, multiple media outlets reported Thursday night.

The Mets (98-58), who lead the National League East by one game over the Braves (97-59) are set to open a three-game series in Atlanta on Friday, and Alvarez is likely to be present.

Alvarez, rated the sport's fourth-best prospect by ESPN, is a 20-year-old Venezuela native who hit 27 home runs in the minor leagues this year. In 67 games for Double-A Binghamton and 45 games for Triple-A Syracuse, he batted a combined .260 with a .374 on-base percentage, a .511 slugging percentage and 78 RBIs.

Alvarez finished with a flurry, batting .362 with three homers, 10 RBIs and 10 walks in 13 September games for Syracuse.

He could see time for New York either at catcher, where Tomas Nido and James McCann having been sharing time, or at designated hitter, where veteran Daniel Vogelbach and rookie Mark Vientos have split the action this month.

--Field Level Media