The Cubs announced that they’ve signed left-handed reliever Dario Alvarez to a Major League contract. Alvarez was designated for assignment and outrighted by the Rangers back in September and hit the open market at season’s end.
Alvarez, 29 in January, has seen Major League time in each of the past four seasons, tossing a combined 48 innings with the Mets, Braves and Rangers. In that time, he’s logged an unsightly 5.06 ERA with a more-promising 11.4 K/9 mark against 4.1 BB/9. He’s coming off a season in which he posted a sub-3.00 in the Majors (albeit with 14 walks in 16 1/3 innings) as well as in Triple-A and has a lengthy track record of intriguing strikeout rates at the minor league level.
Alvarez is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to either break camp with the big league roster or be exposed to waivers in order to be sent to Triple-A. Of course, it shouldn’t simply be assumed that he’ll be handed a job in the Chicago bullpen. Left-handed relief is an area of need for the Cubs (particularly after Justin Wilson’s struggles in Chicago), and it seems likely that they’ll pursue higher-profile options than Alvarez over the remainder of the season. Even if they don’t pick up additional lefties, though, Alvarez would likely compete with Rob Zastryzny for a spot as a third lefty in the bullpen next spring.
Due to his limited big league track record, Alvarez has only amassed one year and 66 days of Major League service time to this point in his career. If he ends up making a strong impression for the Cubs, Alvarez can potentially be controlled all the way through the 2022 season, and he won’t even be eligible for arbitration until the conclusion of the 2019 campaign at the very earliest.
For the Cubs, the signing of Alvarez isn’t entirely dissimilar to last winter’s acquisition of Brian Duensing. It was somewhat surprising to see Duensing land a 40-man roster spot coming off a down season with the Orioles, but the Cubs locked him up fairly early with a modest big league deal and were handsomely rewarded for their show of faith. While Alvarez comes with a considerably more limited track record than Duensing had, he’s a similarly surprising recipient of a 40-man roster spot.
Hes really bad though. Walk rate and H/9 are terrible
Wouldn’t really take this signing too seriously. More of a depth signing than anything.
Contenders don’t really give depth MLB deals
There’s very little risk involved here, it seems.
But I highly doubt he’s going to play a large role.
I don’t think anyone thinks he’ll have a large roll.
More like a dinner roll? 😉
I read it wrong. I thought it said minors deal.
He has to clear waivers
Theo & Co. must see something they like, altho given their control problems last year, I wouldn’t expect them to bring in a guy like this.
How good are Benedict and Hickey?
We shall find out.
Low-risk, very high reward. Seems to have a devastating slider that works against both lefites and righties
Hardly a promising backup plan in the event the Cubs do decide to non-tender Hector Rondon and/or Justin Grimm. Somewhat surprised that Alvarez was offered an MLB contract and a spot on the Cubs 40-man roster. He seemed more of an option for a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He’ll turn 29 in January but I suppose his still untapped potential and team control (not arb-eligible until 2020) were deciding factors in the Cubs offering him an MLB deal.
The Cubs currently also have more space on their 40-man roster (35 before the signing) than most clubs heading into tonight’s non-tender deadline and as the winter meetings beckon. Of course, those numbers will change for some following the 8pm ET deadline.
And you can subtract Carasiti, who is Yakult-bound.
Kids a stud
Now the offseason dominos are really tumbling down
Ohtani had better sign soon. (sarcasm)
Rangers are desperate for pitching and couldn’t wait to see him leave town if that tells you anything.
Then again Doug Brocail is the worst pitching coach in the history of baseball.
Why not resign Duensing? This guys walks everyone just like the pen did last year
I’m not going to lie, I’m not shocked to see Dario bringing in a major league contract. While his peripherals were lackluster in ’17, he has shown the ability to be downright dominant at the major league level.