It appears that the Philadelphia Phillies’ six-year relationship with José Alvarado is coming to an end. The burly reliever will reach free agency in a few weeks, and given the rocky nature of his past few seasons, he almost certainly won’t return to Philly. So how did Alvarado do in 2026? Spoiler Alert: not very well.
It came as a mild surprise when the Phillies’ brass picked up Alvarado’s $9 million club option for the 2026 campaign; not because he lacked talent, but because his previous season had been so disappointing. The electric southpaw was one of the club’s most reliable bullpen arms in 2022 and 2023, but scuffled a bit in 2024 before a performance-enhancing drug suspension torpedoed his 2025 season (and kept him off the playoff roster). Given that his performance started slipping around the same time he came off his PED suspension, it wasn’t a guarantee the Phillies would bring him back.
Alas, bring him back they did.
José Alvarado just doesn't have it anymore, and the Phillies paid the price
Alvarado entered this year as the Phils’ most established lefty after the team traded All-Star Matt Strahm, and the Venezuelan-born veteran immediately struggled. In just his second outing of the season, Alvarado gave up four earned runs and recorded just one out. He didn’t get his ERA under 6.00 until early May, then hovered around that mark for the rest of the year, ultimately finishing with a 5.86 ERA across 68 appearances.
It isn’t difficult to figure out what went wrong for Alvarado this year. In short, he couldn’t put hitters away. For years, a triple-digit sinker helped him to rack up strikeouts amid a fair number of walks, but that formula didn’t work this time around.
The 31-year-old still brought the heat, averaging 97.8 mph on his sinker, but walked 31 batters (and plunked eight more) in just 58.1 IP and, worse yet, yielded 65 hits. That fatal concoction was too much to overcome, despite the fact that Alvarado still managed to punch out 77 batters.
Final grade: F
How could this grade be anything but an F? Alvarado’s 2026 season was a failure on every level. He walked too many batters, gave up too many hits, and surrendered far too many runs. The Phillies started the season with left-handed relief pitching as a strength, but Alvarado and Tanner Banks' struggles left journeyman Tim Mayza as the only effective southpaw in the pen.
That lack of depth really came back to bite the Phils, as the team collectively blew 23 saves. Realistically, not all of those would have turned into wins even with an elite relief corps, but what if even one-third had? That would be seven or eight more victories on the Phillies’ ledger and a division crown.
José Alvarado is not solely responsible for the Phillies’ lackluster 2026 season. Players on both sides of the ball—and the front office—deserve some portion of the blame for another far-too-early October exit. However, the team's most glaring flaw was a sieve-like bullpen, and the biggest disappointment in that 'pen was, without a doubt, José Alvarado.
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