The Dodgers have signed infielder Eddy Alvarez, as announced by Alvarez himself on his Instagram page. Due to the lockout, Alvarez’s contract must be a minor league deal, and he was eligible to sign since was already a minor league free agent at the start of the offseason.
Alvarez has already carved out a unique niche for himself in sports history as one of just six athletes to win medals in different sports at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Alvarez won a silver medal as part of the Team USA baseball team this past summer in Tokyo, and he previously won a silver medal as part of the U.S. 5000m relay speed-skating team at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
The Miami native returned to baseball following the end of his speed-skating career, and he spent five seasons in the White Sox farm system before joining his hometown Marlins prior to the 2019 season. Alvarez made it to the Show in each of the last two seasons, and he has a .188/.287/.287 slash line over 115 big league plate appearances with the Marlins.
Alvarez turns 32 later this month, and while he has had some hitting success at the Triple-A level, the age gap compared to other minor leaguers (not to mention the livelier ball used across Triple-A baseball in 2019) might explain his strong numbers. That said, a .279/.377/.447 slash line in 929 Triple-A plate appearances is no small feat, so it tracks that the Dodgers would want to take a look at Alvarez in Spring Training. He fits the Dodgers’ preferred model of versatile players, as Alvarez has quite a bit of experience as a second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop during his pro career.
Happy New Year to Eddy and all!
Always will root for this guy. cool what he’s accomplished so far but would be cool to see him carve out a niche in the Majors eventually as well.
You know it’s a really slow day if this is news.
What you expect there a lockout . There going to be hardly any news till the ish ends. We all know baseball they take forever to get things done
Some fans blame Rob Manfred, I’m starting to see their point.
cryptonerd – I can name a handful of things Manfred has done flat out wrong.
If someone can illuminate me on some correct decisions he has made, I’d welcome the insight so my view isn’t so distorted.
Some fans know that when Rob Manfred opens his mouth, the voice of the owners comes out. They use him as their heat shield. It seems to work pretty well. For them.
@neurogame – Manfred has grown revenue and franchise values for MLB, so as far as the owners are concerned (who employ him), he’s made plenty of good decisions!
I’m thinking their revenue and franchise values have grown in spite of him. He has been a clumsy delivery boy as the owner’s mouthpiece. And his panicked handling of the ‘illegal substance’ issue last season was a clown show. Someone who had the long term good of baseball, for owners, players and fans, as his primary commitment, is what would truly grow the “value” of the game- for everybody.
And yet, the owners clearly don’t see it that way, as they continue to employ him. Understand that the “good of baseball” as far as the commissioner’s brief is concerned is the financial well-being of ownership, and not one other thing. Commissioners who don’t deliver on that or challenge the will of ownership in any significant way soon find themselves unemployed. So if you see any of Manfred’s handling of baseball issues to be a clown show, look to the owners. They are the ringmasters of this circus, not him.
rondon – My biggest issue with him, in conjunction with the cheating scandal, is how he handled the racist interaction between Gurriel and Darvish. A suspension for regular games in the following season does no justice as he’s allowed to play out the rest of the games in the World Series. It was a gutless move and done on the biggest stage of America’s pastime.
.
With his face wearing a green cap, put Manfred on the hearth of a fireplace and he is the “elf on the shelf.” Except no one really cares if he’s watching since there are no penalties.
And yet, he still has his job. Ownership sure has a sweet thing going, with so many fans prepared to shoot the messenger without taking the message’s origin into consideration.
Oh, I think I did. But I don’t think his job is locked in. Yeah, the owners have a sweet deal- for the moment. But how Manfred handles the lockout will say it all. If it lasts into late spring and the season’s delayed, all the white bread BS excuses he can make won’t salvage the blowback from the public and he could end up being the owner’s scapegoat.
@bluesky
So you don’t blame manfred, you blame his job title?
We all know he represents the owners
@dorothy
Saying Manfred has grown revenue is like saying my buying bitcoin caused it’s price increase.
Both of those things were going up without us
You know they write about any and every transaction that any MLB announces. So, it’s just MLB news. Same as always.
We’re gonna have slow news days for a while.
Scrooge⚾️
This type of news would be reported regardless of a lockout.
Even though odds are he’s never going to pan out to be anything special, he’s one of my favorite stories in baseball, going from Olympian speed skater to Olympian baseball player
If hell freezes over, he’ll make a great pinch runner.
That was good!
Icy what you did there.
Is there baseball in Hell, or are you implying that LA is infernal?
The lockout is hell.
Aw, man, what a great image.
Also: speed skating in Miami? Huh.
I forgot about his transition from speed skater to baseball. As far as baseball goes, his offensive numbers (minors or majors) are not impressive at all, so I wonder if he is a great defender? Doesn’t seem to have much stolen base potential either at age 32…cool story but very strange fit for the Dodgers organization. He seems more like a KBO or NPB candidate.
I would imagine so, as he’s that classic replacement level type guy. Maybe Friedman is a fan of speedskating too.
versitile defender, decent AVG/speed at AAA. most likely just depth.
Lmao in what world is .280/.380/.450 not impressive? Teams pay guys several millions if they bat .240 with an OBP of .340 simply because it shows a higher walk rate and an OBP that isn’t 100% based on batting average.
If “Player A” has a .290/.315 slash, he’d scares teams as at face value, his OBP is heavily dependent on his BA, if “Player A” hits .240 his OBP likely drops down to .265.
Your statement declares that an OBP .100 pts higher than batting average is unimpressiv, yet you’d be surprised how few minor leaguers or major leaguers are able to do that, be it Triple A, MLB or AZ Fall League.
Maybe, just maybe, that’s why the team with the highest projected 2022 WAR added him to their system???
Yeah, definitely the small sample size thing and all applies here. I don’t think anyone is laughing at this move. Guys like this are really valuable because they don’t hurt your team in a pinch and there’s always that chance they go on a tear.
Dorothy odee hating on this guy smh.. the guy did his thing let him prove himself now with the big boys!
Dorothy, being a Marlins fan I saw him play a lot. There was a couple games he looked awful defensively but then he got it together and would make some amazing plays. He has some hops and makes some amazing jumps to steal line drives that would go over most players heads. So long story short yes he can plan some good defense around the diamond. Just has to get some passable offense.
I don’t see this as being much more than a depth move, but our bench sucked last year, so maybe Alvarez could help. Who knows?
It’s barely even a depth move, unless you mean minor league depth.
I mean statistically he has actually been quite impressive at times in the minors. Granted some of that time was probably due to him being much older than the competition (ie Rookie/A-ball at 23/24 vs 18/19) but still the past 2 years in the minors he’s hit over .300. so while I doubt he’ll ever be a starter in the majors. He could very well be an average backup for several positions with some solid speed to go along with the defensive versatility.
12 HRs in 70 games in 2019 also isn’t a bad amount of pop
if you’ve spent several years away from the game being older than average really doesnt mean anything. maybe he was more physically mature than most of the complex kids, but he was coming in more or less cold.
Could be but it isn’t that rare for guys to figure out triple A but never translate to the majors, especially at that age. Although Darkside makes a good point about him being away from the game for a bit so maybe he’s just a late bloomer.
An extraordinary athlete
The next Kiké?
You guys the dodgers are cheating can’t you see they can’t keep getting away with this
Every baseball team cheats, except the Orioles.
Loophole
Dorothy odee hating on this guy smh.. the guy did his thing let him prove himself now with the big boys!
How in the world does anyone make a career out of speed skating? I mean other than the Olympics,what is it good for?
absolutely nothing!
It is called endorsements, the better you are the more the company makes that is suppling you with your skates, outfit, helmet, etc. even the logos on the uniforms makes you money from banks and other entities and this happens over a 4 year period of trials and qualifiers. My Nephew made a year round living for like 15 years as a para Olympic sprinter. Banks, his prothetelic manufacturer and other sponsors lined up to have their name attached to the World Fastest one legged runner!
Let’s say you’re getting chased by a polar bear. Put on the old speed skeets and let it rip.
By the way Blue Jays Fan, your nephew sounds amazing.
It’s good for competing.
This the type of signing the Dodgers have made in the past that turned coal into gold. J. Turner, C. Taylor and M. Muncy. Obviously not suggesting Alvarez is gonna be their next uncovered jewel, but, who knows? No one ever thought the above trio were gonna become solid everyday players.
I thought Turner was gonna be a solid everyday player. Not in a million years did I think he’d be as good as he’s been, but I thought he’d be solid.
Well, he came from the Mets, next they’ll dump McNeil and he’ll win the Triple Crown.
Players get better when they go to the “Somewhereelse NottheMets”.
One of my favourite players last couple of years. Hard to see him go but wishing him good luck!