Jose Alvarez finally became good, so on principle the Angels had to trade him to the Phillies for worse talent

The Angels reported late Thursday night that Jose Alvarez had been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies:

Alvarez, 29, pitched for the Angels from 2014-2018. He compiled a 3.35 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP through 236.2 innings, spending a lot of time as Mike Scioscia’s trusted lefty option out of the pen. His 2018 campaign was his best, when he pitched 63 innings with a 2.71 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Before last season, he was maligned as a pitcher who was used in the wrong situations and as someone who simply couldn’t get the batters he needed to out. I wrote this piece last year.

And now he’s gone. Just like that.

The return? Luis Garcia, a 31-year old right handed pitcher with a career 4.12 ERA and 1.51 WHIP. His 2018 season was particularly disastrous, with a 6.07 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP.

Both Alvarez and Garcia had four years of service time and were projected to make $1.7MM in arbitration.

Jeff Fletcher of the OCR notes that’s Garcia’s fastball is 98 mph.

Angels GM Billy Eppler has noted before that, to him, velocity is the best predictor of success for a pitcher.

However, as of now, the Halos Heaven staff is decidedly not impressed.

For Michael Jeung.