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The Angels reported late Thursday night that Jose Alvarez had been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies:
Today the #Angels have acquired RHP Luis García from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for LHP José Álvarez.
— Angels PR (@LAAngelsPR) December 7, 2018
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.
Garcia averaged 98 mph with his fastball and he struck out 10 per nine innings last year.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) December 7, 2018
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.
Poll
Initial thoughts on the Alvarez trade?
This poll is closed
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8%
Solid
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50%
Bad bad bad
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40%
Meh
For Michael Jeung.