Phillies place Jose Alvarado on IL with elbow injury and Rob Thomson admits concern
Jose Alvarado was in his normal, jovial mood following Tuesday’s Phillies win, moments after manager Rob Thomson revealed he had been unavailable with left wrist tightness.
Alvarado said he hoped to show up Wednesday and be ready out of the bullpen.
That wasn’t the case and might not be the case for a little while. The Phils placed their dominant left-handed reliever on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with left elbow inflammation.
As Thomson was meeting with reporters prior to Wednesday’s game against the Blue Jays, Alvarado was seeing another doctor.
“We don’t know (the severity) yet,” Thomson said. “We’ll know a little bit more later. When the wrist was tight, we wanted to check everything out so that’s why we did the MRI and that’s what we found. That’s where the pain is coming from.”
Thomson admitted there’s concern.
“Well, yeah, I mean, he’s a big part of the bullpen,” he said. “He’s one of the best relievers in baseball, if not the best. Yeah, I’m a little concerned for sure.”
Alvarado has not been overworked this season. He’s appeared in 14 of the Phillies’ 36 games, a full-season pace of 63 games, a mark he’s hit three times in his career. He’s been used in back-to-back games only once.
He will travel with the team on the upcoming road trip to Colorado and San Francisco, and the IL stint was backdated to May 8, making him first eligible to return on May 23. But it could last beyond that as the Phillies will be protective of such an important piece of their team.
Alvarado had been basically splitting setup and closer duties with Craig Kimbrel. If the eighth inning of a close game presented difficult left-handed matchups, it would go to Alvarado. If there were tough righties, it would be Kimbrel, with the other pitcher following in the ninth.
Alvarado dominated in the second half last season but had never been better than he was in the 14 appearances so far this season. He struck out 24 with no walks. His opponents had a .192 on-base percentage. Both sides have been ecstatic about the early returns since Alvarado signed an extension with the Phillies in November through at least 2025 that guaranteed him $18.55 million in new money with a chance to earn more.
With Alvarado out, lefty Gregory Soto will slot into that role alongside Kimbrel. Soto has appeared in a league-leading 18 games but five of them have been less than an inning. Soto and Seranthony Dominguez had the same lefty-righty thing going as Alvarado and Kimbrel, just in the sixth and seventh innings.
It also makes Matt Strahm, who just moved to the bullpen over the weekend after exceeding expectations in six starts, even more important. Because Strahm went from relieving in spring training to starting the first five weeks back to relieving, he is not yet on a normal reliever’s routine. The Phillies will not pitch him in back-to-back games. They feel comfortable now using him two to three times per week, Thomson said Wednesday, depending on the number of pitches thrown.
