USATSI_18230262 — © Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

José Alvarado is the Best Left-Handed Reliever in Baseball

The Philadelphia Phillies new version of José Alvarado might be the best left-handed bullpen arm in the sport.

Author:
Alex Carr
Aug 10, 2022 3:00 PM EDT

In this story:

If you were to tell any Philadelphia Phillies fan at the start of the 2022 season that José Alvarado would meld into an integral part of the team's bullpen, they likely would've dismissed you immediately.

If you were to tell any any baseball fan at the start of the 2022 season that, by the mid-way point, Alvarado would be the among the best lefty relievers in the sport, you might have been committed to an asylum.

And yet, August has reared its head, and José Alvarado is now both of those things. He is among the best, if not the best left-handed reliever in all of baseball right now.

Onlookers may peer at the fireballer's 4.73 ERA and scoff, thinking this claim is full of hot air — but the 27 year old has made legitimate, tangible changes, and has been nigh unhittable since said changes were enacted.

A well documented switch for Alvarado has been the upped usage of his cutter. In 2021, Alvarado threw the pitch just 16% of the time, while throwing his blistering sinker at an 80% rate. In 2022, his cutter frequency has nearly tripled to a whopping 43% usage, while he's turned to his famous lightspeed turbo-sinker just 55% of the time.

It is this change that has pulled the most weight for him, and you can point to a precise moment at which it took place.

When Alvarado was demoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on May 27, he was off to a rough start to the season. In 13 innings of work, Alvarado mustered a 7.62 ERA walking 10 batters with just 17 strikeouts. He had allowing opponents a .302 batting average with a .415 on-base percentage. He was completely and utterly ineffective.

Following that demotion, he tossed four scoreless innings with the IronPigs, and then returned on June 12 to another tepid major league appearance.

But that's when things clicked.

Since June 16, nearly a full two months ago, the left-hander has tallied a 15.71 strikeouts-per-nine rate, bested only by the likes of New York's Edwin Diaz, Seattle's Andrés Muñoz, and fellow lefty, Josh Hader.

Hader has been baseball's frontrunning southpaw for what feels like a decade, but during this stretch, Alvarado leads him in most major categories. In fact, Alvarado leads most lefties in nearly every major category in that span:


Pitcher	Appearances	Innings Pitched	ERA	K/9	FIP	fWAR
José Alvarado	22	18.1	1.96	15.71	1.80	0.6
Josh Hader	21	23.2	9.00	15.88	5.35	-0.3
Taylor Rogers	17	17.1	6.75	11.42	1.79	0.7
Andrew Chafin	21	21.0	1.29	11.14	2.26	0.5
Brooks Raley	20	20.0	1.80	11.70	1.86	0.6

While a few of the above pitchers have strung together strong seasons, it's hard to argue that any compare to Alvarado's miraculous strikeouts-per-nine, combined with his low surface and underlying numbers.

What's perhaps even more impressive: in those 22 appearances, opponents are slashing a ludicrous .183/.275/.310 against Alvarado. That totals out to a minuscule .585 OPS, and explains why in 341 total pitches, batters have swung-and-missed at 19% of them.

This is more than some simple hot streak, it's a lasting shift for the former Tampa Bay Ray, and has slingshot him into the upper echelon of left-handed relievers. Heck, he's been among the best relievers in baseball period! His resurgence is a big part of the Phillies bullpen's recent and lasting success, as he joins Andrew Bellatti, Nick Nelson, and others who have benefitted from the Phillies' pitching development this season.

It's been a tumultuous two years for Alvarado in the Phillies organization, but he seems to have finally figured things out. He could be well on his way to becoming one of the Phillies' forefront leverage arms.

After all, should the Phillies continue at their current pace, Alvarado will be a fearsome weapon to carry into the postseason.