José Alvarado’s wild new pitch will absolutely torment batters this season

Very few areas of the Philadelphia Phillies roster were more scrutinized over the offseason than the team's bullpen. That was especially true after losing important arms like closer Carlos Estévez and All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman in free agency. The Phillies countered by signing former Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano and added former Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Joe Ross to help fill the bullpen void.

While the ninth-inning role remains undetermined and worthy of speculation heading into Opening Day, José Alvarado was nearly perfect on the mound in spring training and could be making a very convincing case to return to the closer's role this season.

Alvarado is coming off a down 2024 season that saw his ERA balloon from a career-low 1.74 in 2023 to a concerning 4.09 last season. After posting a dismal 8.31 ERA in 8 2/3 innings of work in July, the Phillies opted to acquire Estévez in a risky deal with the Angels in order to add an experienced closer to the mix.

But Alvarado has been lights out during exhibition play, and the control issues he struggled with at times last summer seem to be well behind him after nine appearances this spring.

José Alvarado’s wild new pitch will absolutely torment batters this season

It's not a stretch to label Alvarado's performances in spring training anything but dominant. Since the start of exhibition play, the veteran southpaw has been regularly touching 100 mph with his sinker and currently owns a spotless 0.00 ERA. That's in addition to striking out 20 while only allowing three walks during his 9 2/3 innings of work.

Much of this success can be attributed to Alvarado's renewed ability to command his sinker and cutter at any time in the count. While impressive, it's Alvarado's reworked curveball that's been turning heads and causing hitters to look confused at the plate recently. That's especially true after Alvarado tossed one of the nastiest-looking pitches in recent memory for a strike against Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham earlier this week.

After throwing Pham a 101.3 mph sinker that resulted in a swinging strike, Alvarado confused Pham with an 86.2 mph pitch resembling a modified curveball that traveled six inches in the opposite direction and darted back in for strike two. One pitch later, the veteran outfielder was walking back to the dugout after striking out swinging on a 95.4 mph cutter.

The perplexed look on Pham's face after failing to identify the pitch is to be expected. Curveballs usually break in the opposite direction to right-handed hitters when thrown by a left-handed pitcher. Without warning, Alvarado confused him by throwing what looked like a screwball, a pitch that's become almost as rare as seeing a knuckleball in present-day Major League Baseball. How rare? Los Angeles Dodgers right-handed reliever Brent Honeywell remains the only known MLB pitcher to regularly throw the elusive offering at any point over the last five seasons.

Rare pitch aside, it's pretty clear that Alvarado's use of a screwball could become a devastating new weapon for him to feature along with his slider, cutter and reworked curveball this year, especially if he can throw it for strikes consistently. Unless Alvarado's pitch grip was accidental and the movement of the pitch was an unplanned anomaly, the addition of a screwball to Alvarado's growing pitch mix could become a very nasty surprise delivered to many unlucky MLB hitters at the plate this season.

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