José Alvarado
A former infallible stud in the Phillies bullpen, José Alvarado had an underwhelming 2024 season, to say the least. After consistently putting up sub-3.20 ERAs along with a dominating strikeout rate close to 14 batters per nine innings in each of his previous two seasons, the Phillies looked to Alvarado to take his game to another level when he was elevated into the closer’s role for this year. He had shown success in the past when handling ninth-inning duties, so Philadelphia truly expected him to prosper in the role and run with it.
However, Alvarado ended up struggling mightily over the course of the 2024 season. Things got so shaky for the 29-year-old reliever that he was eventually moved off of the role following a horrendous July, especially after the deadline acquisition of closer Carlos Estévez from the Los Angeles Angels.
In the end, Alvarado posted a 2-5 record with a 4.09 ERA and 1.25 WHIP, while giving up a career-high 28 earned runs and six home runs over 61 2/3 innings pitched in 66 relief appearances. His normally unhittable stuff became hittable, while his 9.2 K/9 was his lowest strikeout rate since his debut season back in 2017.
Due to his inconsistency and ineffectiveness throughout the regular season, the Phillies chose to stay away from his usage during their 2024 postseason run. Alvarado eventually appeared in just one game in the NLDS and, as expected, ended up yielding two runs in just 2/3 of an inning of work.
Had he been the Alvarado of old, especially the version that we witnessed as part of the Phillies’ 2023 playoff run, Philadelphia wouldn’t have had to rely on other arms to get things done in high-leverage situations during this year’s NLDS. Those arms all happened to end up imploding, playing a huge role in the collapse this postseason. Alvarado will now have the offseason to hopefully reestablish his reliability for 2025 to help stabilize the relief corps again.