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 a mop-up situation with the Phillies leading 7-1 in the seventh, Romano replaced Ranger Suárez with two outs and a man on first. He then gave up a single and a home run to make it a 7-4 game before getting out of the inning. He has a 7.56 ERA in 41 2/3 innings pitched this season.
“It’s funny, I was looking at that today,” said Thomson. “He either shuts people down or he gives up two or three runs. He did a lot early in the season. And a lot of tough luck, too. You look at last night, he gives up a jam shot base hit and then a guy fights him and fights him and fights him, and he leaves a slider in his wheelhouse and he hits it over the fence. It just seems like it’s been one of those years. Still good stuff. He’ll get swings and miss when he’s on. And he’s actually done a pretty good job at killing innings, coming in with traffic and getting out of it. I like him.
“There’s some fluctuations there (with velocity). But when it’s good, when it’s 96 it’s pretty good. That is a little bit strange when he dips down to that 93 range.”
Castellanos stays at No. 7
Recently, rightfielder Nick Castellanos went seven of eight games without getting a hit. Thomson gave the durable Castellanos a rare day off on Saturday in Washington but had him back in the lineup on Sunday, hitting in the fifth spot. Castellanos responded by going 2-for-5 with a home run and double.
Monday against the Seattle Mariners, Thomson dropped Castellanos to seventh in the order. Castellanos again had two hits.
“Just to break up the righties a little bit more,” said Thomson. “Instead of having the three righties in a row, stick Marsh in between them and kind of balance it out a little bit.”
The signs that Castellanos may be turning things around at the plate came in Washington for Thomson, but before the hits started coming.
“The Friday game in Washington he drove a few balls to centerfield and that was a good sign to me,” Thomson said. “He had the day off then he came out Sunday a double and a home run. Last night I thought the swings were pretty good. He’s getting on it.”
An update on the Ace
Thomson said that he reached out to pitcher Zack Wheeler via text Monday to see how his ace was doing after a successful thrombolysis procedure to remove a blood clot in his right upper extremity earlier in the day.
“He said he was feeling great,” Thomson said. “He’s at home resting now.” There is no timetable as for a Wheeler return.
