Henderson Álvarez

Henderson Javier Álvarez (born April 18, 1990) is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins.

Álvarez debuted in MLB with the Blue Jays in 2011, and was traded to the Marlins after the 2012 season. He threw a no-hitter for the Marlins on the last day of the 2013 season. He was named an MLB All-Star during the 2014 season.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Álvarez signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as an international free agent, and made his professional baseball debut in 2007 with the Dominican Summer Blue Jays of the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League, pitching to a 1–2 win–loss record with a 5.61 earned run average (ERA).^[1]

Álvarez subsequently moved to the United States, where he pitched for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, going 1–4 with a 5.63 ERA and a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.67. He was promoted to the Lansing Lugnuts of the Class A Midwest League for the 2009 season, where he was an All-Star with a 9–6 win–loss record and a 3.47 ERA. He played 2010 with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League. He was named an All-Star and was selected to appear in the All-Star Futures Game,^[2] finishing the season with a 8–7 record with a 4.33 ERA. He started the 2011 season with Dunedin, but was promoted after two starts to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Class AA Eastern League. He was again named an All-Star and made his second appearance in the Futures Game, finishing the year with a 8–4 record and a 2.86 ERA.

Toronto Blue Jays

On August 9, 2011, Álvarez was called up to replace Wil Ledezma, who was outrighted to the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas 51s. He took the rotation spot of Carlos Villanueva, and made his career debut on August 10 against the Oakland Athletics^[3][4] pitching 5²⁄₃ innings and giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits, with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk.^[5]

On August 31, Álvarez recorded his first career win in a 13–0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched 8 full innings, giving up just 3 hits, no walks and 5 strikeouts. At 21 years and 135 days, Álvarez becomes the youngest Jays' pitcher to record a win since Kelvim Escobar in 1997, and the youngest starting pitcher to record the win for the Jays since Phil Huffman in 1979.^[6] He wound up appearing in 10 starts for the Blue Jays, going 1–3 in 63.2 innings. He issued just 8 walks while striking out 40.

On May 4, 2012, Álvarez threw his first career complete game and shutout, defeating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 4–0. The previous night saw teammate Brandon Morrow throw a shutout as well, making them the first Blue Jays to throw back-to-back shutouts since Jack Morris and Al Leiter did so on June 16 and 17, 1993.^[7] Álvarez finished the 2012 season with a 9–14 record and a 4.85 ERA in 31 starts. He struck out 79 batters in 187 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched, among the lowest strikeout rates in the Majors in 2012.

Miami Marlins

On November 19, 2012, Álvarez was traded to the Miami Marlins along with Adeiny Hechavarria, Jeff Mathis, Yunel Escobar, Jake Marisnick, Anthony DeSclafani, and Justin Nicolino in exchange for Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, José Reyes, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio.^[8] Alvarez spent most of the first half of the 2013 regular season on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. He was activated from the 60-day disabled list on July 4, and made his first start as a Marlin that night against the Atlanta Braves. Tom Koehler was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Alvarez.^[9] Álvarez received a no-decision in his Marlins debut, pitching 5 innings and giving up 3 earned runs in a 4–3 win. Álvarez would earn his first win as a Marlin on July 26, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

On September 29, 2013, the final game of the Marlins 2013 season, Álvarez threw the 282nd no-hitter in MLB history, in a game against the Detroit Tigers. He allowed three base runners on an error, a walk, and a hit batter as the Marlins walked off in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch, 1–0. He became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the final game of the regular season since Mike Witt in 1984, when he did so for the California Angels.^[10] Álvarez finished the 2013 season with a 5–6 record in 17 starts. Through 17 starts, Álvarez pitched in ¹⁰²⁄₂ innings while allowing just two home runs. The previous season he had allowed 29 home runs.

Álvarez opened the 2014 season with two complete game shutouts in his first seven starts.^[11] Alvarez was named an All-Star.^[12] After earning an 8–5 record with a 2.48 ERA and a league-leading three shutouts, Álvarez was sent to the disabled list on August 1 with shoulder inflammation^[13] before being activated on August 16.^[14] He finished the 2014 season with a 12–7 record, the most wins for a Marlins pitcher, and a 2.65 ERA with 111 strikeouts.^[15]

The Marlins named Álvarez their Opening Day starting pitcher in 2015.^[16] In April 2015, Álvarez went on the disabled list when an MRI revealed inflammation in his shoulder and elbow.^[15][17] After going 0-4 with an ERA over 6.00, he was declared out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery on July 28.^[18] On December 2, Álvarez was non-tendered by the Marlins, making him a free agent.^[19]

Oakland Athletics

On December 28, 2015, Álvarez signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract with the Oakland Athletics, with an additional $1.6 million available in incentives.^[20]

Pitching style

Álvarez is a sinkerballer with a 92–95 mph sinker, a 93–96 mph four-seam fastball, an 84–87 mph slider, and an 85–89 mph changeup. He also throws an occasional cutter (87–90). The slider is mostly to right-handed hitters and the changeup mostly against lefties. His pitches all have below-average whiff rates, and his strikeouts per 9 innings rate is only 4.1 as of 27 August 2012. However, his sinker has a ground ball/fly ball ratio of about 4:1.^[21]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Henderson Álvarez.

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)