MARCH 6: The Giants announced the signing of Álvarez to a one-year, $1.15MM contract with a $1.5MM club option for 2022, per MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (via Twitter). The option comes with a $100K buyout, adds John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). That bonus will count towards the luxury tax, though the option year will not. Therefore, Álvarez’s deal should count $1.16MM against the luxury tax payroll this season.
MARCH 2: Free-agent reliever Jose Alvarez is nearing a deal with the Giants, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. It’s unclear whether it will be a major league contract.
The left-handed Alvarez, who will turn 32 in May, debuted with the Tigers in 2013 and has since pitched for the Angels and Phillies. Alvarez struggled to keep runs off the board as a Tiger, but he did well in Anaheim and Philadelphia. Overall, despite a subpar strikeout percentage (20.8), Alvarez has logged a respectable 3.59 ERA/3.85 SIERA in 340 2/3 major league innings. He has thrown 50-plus innings in a season on four occasions, though he only tossed 6 1/3 frames last year as a result of a groin injury.
If his agreement with San Francisco does go through, Alvarez could be part of a bullpen that has no shortage of southpaws. Jake McGee has been their relief corps’ biggest free-agent acquisition, but Jarlin Garcia, Sam Selman, Wandy Peralta and Caleb Baragar are also on the Giants’ 40-man roster.
good pickup
Good signing. I would had like the Giants to sign Cole Hamels also, but their starting rotation is complete.
complete but not very good
It’s not great, but Cole wouldn’t really make it much better. With Tyler Beede returning this summer, there’s a lot of upside with this rotation – especially if Cueto returns to form. Gausman and Wood will both be solid as well.
@babyboy It’s not a great rotation but Cole wouldn’t make it any better, tbh. With Tyler Beede expected to be back this summer, there’s a lot of upside there.
Tyler Beede is not one for whom I’d hold out hope.
Agreed @Pete’sView, I’m a Giants fan and I feel Webb won’t amount to enough and same for Beede. He needs to really turn his career around to change my mind.
PutPeteRoseInThe Hall – I actually have a little more hope for Webb, but not a lot more. I think we’ll know by the end of this season. Beede NEVER impressed me at Vanderbilt and I never understood why the Giants drafted him so high. And BTW, I agree Pete Rose should be in The Hall.
I completely disagree. Cole Hamels is washed. I like our rotation better than what hamels could offer in terms of upside from players in contract years who are looking to prove and establish themselves amongst their peers…. and get paid big if they produce. We have a low risk, high pedigree, extremely high ceiling pitching staff. And I hope we get to trade them all away at all star break for top tier talented youth. Covid kept us from realizing that with Smyly and Gausman. This year will be different.
I’m glad someone’s excited about our rotation. And I hope I’m dead wrong. I still think it will be a fun team to watch—unlike a few years ago.
True
Riveting!
Nice. More options is always a good thing.
Look out for those liners Jose!
Yawn, I’m going back to watching house hunters & having stiff drinks, text me if anything remotely interesting happens.
The stiff drinks part explains your account a lot better
You ain’t funny no matter how hard you try.
And you ain’t smart no matter how hard you try. Ahahaha!
i may not be very smart but i’m still over your head!
HA! Yea that’s pretty obvious. You want to hold my masters degree in business, just so you can say you held one?
lmao! you ain’t funny!
You already said that. Did I mention the part about house hunters & stiff drinks? See ya in church. Ahahaha!
Sick flex
This was weird
no One cares about your funky masters degree but you trust me!
Hey man a word of the wise… don’t brag about your money, education, or accomplishments. Let them stand strong on their own accord. Be humble, otherwise you look ignorant.
If he actually had one he wouldn’t feel the need to brag about it, trust me
Might have been the Phillies only good reliever last year
It was Alvarez, Blake Parker and a bag of s#$t.
As well as your lame responses explain yours.
Can’t be a MiLB deal, man.
Although…man, so many relief pitchers this winter. So I guess maybe.
Gotham. Click on him. How is he not serviceable/solid? I’d take him over half the pitchers in the Angel pen.
Halo11, I never said he wasn’t, you would know much better than I would about the Angels bullpen. I mean damn, I didn’t come at you/him as a spider monkey. I apologize, I didn’t know every post was life & death. Lighten up!
Did I come at you.? I thought I just asked you to take a look at him. He not that bad.
You guys should just screw and get it over with.
guys a lil sensitive
reported!!!
Another moron heard from. You can act like an ass on a board. And you do… feel proud. In real life everyone will recognize you as a loser.
Even though his shortened 2020 season had reverse splits, this guy gets lit up by righties. I’m surprised so many people are saying solid signing. He’s going to have a bad time over the course of a full year, but Giants can afford to see what sticks.
If he gets ripped by righties, what would you say Claudio does against Righties?
WarkMohlers:
Over his career, RHBs have put up an OPS of .765. How is that getting lit up? And why even mention anything from the tiny sample of 6 1/3 innings that was his 2020 season? Useless.
Tad:
I just brought up the 6 innings because the reverse splits were so dramatic. I know it’s not telling, but I also think it’s pretty common to glance at the baseball reference stats and not look further.
It was a poor choice of words to say he gets lit up. I think it’s more him struggling than the hitters getting the better of him with his k% and bb%. I didn’t notice the career ops, good looking out.
Thanks for responding with relevant information as to why I was wrong, and not just personal attacks. A nice breath of fresh air.
WarkMohlers:
Thanks for the response. Since most pitchers have a platoon disadvantage of some degree, it would be interesting to see what MLB average is in that regard. I’m too lazy to do that much research. And, as you point out, there is more to it than just OPS.
I too dislike the baseless insults. Apparently some people just like being unpleasant. I wish there were more discussions that centered on objective baseball analysis.
Giants have 5,899 pitchers in camp
and 3 position players!
Hey you can never have enough pitching! After a strange couple of years with the pandemic disrupting pitchers routines… I like having tons of upside depth to help power through any injuries.
I bet 5,890 of them will be injured by Opening Day.
Just a reminder of when Eppler traded Alvarez (the only lefty in the Angels pen) to the Phillies for Luis Garcia – a trade that made zero sense then (or now). Glad that he worked out for the Phillies and Eppler is now unemployed.
Not gonna lie, the giants pitching staff is looking sneaky good. As an avid FBB champion…These and the rest of the pitcher pickups are the exact type of pitcher you snag off the fantasy waiver wire who provide value above the league avg. Low risk, high ceiling. Keep up the talent sifting Farhan! SF is the new destination to revive your career and get a big contract… from another organization. NL west is stacked but we all have seen how injuries can mare a great teams season. With the Giants newfound depth… they are poised to capitalize on any opportunity where an NL powerhouse gets bit by the injury bug. Can’t wait for opening day!
Must be a lot of details, they’re really sneaking up on this ‘deal’
I like Alvarez. Eppler made some good moves, but one of his bad moves was trading Alvarez for Luis Garcia.
I’m not sure why the Phillies didn’t resign him
as he was one of very few that pitched well in their BP last year.
He’s a solid pitcher. Not a bad pickup at all.
If you’re heart is beating and have MLB pitching experience, you can get a contract.
Why does it count as $1.16MM against luxury tax instead of $1.25MM?
Buyouts only at 10% for luxury tax purposes?
More likely the writer was daydreaming about baseball during math class.
Al Avila is great, at something, I’m sure of it. But, where, O’where is he?
I feel sorry for all the female Tiger fans……pulling their hair out like that…… It must be Chris Illiches’ secret plan to double his billions…… He’s going into the wig business, folks. You heard it here first. Insider information.
Not sure how you came to $1.16M, $100k buyout would make it $1.15M + $0.1M, not $0.01M. So $1.25M.