The look said it all.
As José Alvarado stood at his locker in the Phillies’ clubhouse, a smile ran across his face as the assembled media made the march toward the big left-hander, just back from an 80-game PED suspension.
“I feel so good and happy to be back with my teammates,” said the affable Alvarado, who was reinstated Tuesday. To make room, the Phillies sent pitcher Nolan Hoffman back to Lehigh Valley. “It’s good when you’re working and you’re not doing anything crazy and you know your routine. That’s why I feel my good stuff is normal. I’m here.”
In five games at Lehigh, Alvarado pitched five innings, had four strikeouts and didn’t allow an earned run. As intimidating as it may be for opponents during the regular season to have to face two 100-MPH relief pitchers in Alvarado and Jhoan Duran, there’s more surrounding the happiness of Alvarado’s return.
“Yeah, it’s another great arm,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Other than one outing down in Lehigh, he was really good. Plus, his energy around the clubhouse is always fun. Yeah, it’s great to have him back.”
As for the pitching aspect of it, Thomson would like to proceed slowly when it comes to using Alvarado, but baseball doesn’t always allow things to go according to plan.
“It’s just another high-leverage arm,” Thomson said. “I’m going to ease him in. Try to ease him in. I can’t promise that. Great arm, lot of energy, brings a lot to the table in that clubhouse.”
The downside of it is, of course, Alvarado not being allowed to pitch in the playoffs. The particularly painful part of his punishment from Major League Baseball. But Thomson has said before that the objective is to win as many games in the regular season as possible, then adjust when the playoffs come. So, if Alvarado returns to form, expect some very hard throwing late in games until the postseason.
“It’s hard. It’s hard because I know I want to be there, but that happened,” said Alvarado of not being playoff eligible. “I’m here to try to do my best, to do everything I can for giving the help to the team to win a lot of games. If you see the hardest ball I threw was 100.8 (MPH). I don’t care about velo. I come here to attack the strike zone and that’s it.”
Getting a contribution from Alvarado out of the bullpen would help to make up for a lot of things, particularly the struggles veteran Jordan Romano has gone through this season. Monday, in…