On the surface, the swap between Garcia and Alvarez looks bad. After all, Garcia put up a 6.07 ERA with a NEGATIVE WAR in 2018, while Alvarez was arguable the Angels’ best bullpen piece with a 2.71 ERA and 1.4 WAR. Seems a bit lopsided, right?
Both pitchers are around the same salary and both are arbitration eligible for two more years. Alvarez is 29 year old while Garcia is 31.
Pitch Repertoire
Jose Alvarez throws 5 pitches (fastball, curve, slider, changeup, cutter). His fastball tops out around 94 MPH and his velocity really hasn’t changed over the past 3 years, in fact his fastball velocity ticked up ever so slightly in 2018.