Andrew Alvarez

entirely different arm that we go to next in Washington, other side of America.

Andrew Alvarez, the left-hander for the Washington Nationals, put together a really solid year.

113 innings at a 3-4 ERA.

The FIP was at 3.32. Andrew Alvarez is a guy that throws about 92 miles an hour.

Opponents hit .229 against him with a 50% ground ball rate.

So this is another guy that walked 11% of batting, but rolled ground balls at a 50% clip.

I think Alvarez relies on Chase in the same way that Jose Quintana relies on Chase.

That's my comp for you.

And that is a big part of what the Nationals need at this point because then all of a sudden you bump up everybody back one slot in the rotation.

Andrew Alvarez is now your four starter.

DJ Hers is maybe your five at this point.

And you've got guys in place that, hey, all of a sudden this rotation doesn't look too bad.

And you traded away one of your stud guys with Foster Griffin at the deadline.

So you lost him in the second half, which obviously did not help the Nationals.

But then you had a guy like Andrew Alvarez step up and look really good down the stretch for this team.

The moral of the story is this.

You've got Connolly Early, a left-handed pitcher coming into this rotation.

Andrew Alvarez, who, you know, we kind of joked about earlier this season, but he looked really good in the second half and proved to himself that this is someone that the Nationals should take very seriously moving forward.

And then coming in, waiting in the wings, you've got Harley and Susanna.

One of the more special, unique pitching talents down in the minor leagues.

Let's move on.

We've got Andrew Alvarez, our final player of the day.

Andrew Alvarez was a player that was awesome.

Pick up towards the end of the season.

Like he was lights out for me throughout the playoffs.

We have a huge rotation.

Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin, Cade Cavalli, Jackson Kent, DJ Herz, Andrew Alvarez, Connelly Early.

That's seven starters.

Plus a bullpen with Clayton Vita, Riley Cornelio, and nearly 10 relievers.

Cavalli has the stuff, but the injury history is real.

If he's healthy, he's a mid-rotation starter.

After that, it's a toss-up between Kent, Herz, Alvarez, and Early.

Jackson Kent has the highest ceiling.

They were able to turn seasons around for Keibert Ruiz and Curtis Mead as well.

So I have faith in it, and I'm not saying it's going to happen, but what if everything does not fire on all cylinders, and what if the Nationals really do take that step back? Is it gonna be the pitching that takes that step up that I think not a lot of people expect for them to do? I think Connor Early's gonna come in and help this rotation, but does Andrew Alvarez replicate what he did in the second half this season? It's a fair question.

Does Cade Cavalli build off of a monster season? I'm gonna bet that he does.

But the way that this team won this season was how their offense did, and I think that if you trade CJ Abrams, and if you take a lot of the things out of the picture that went right and bounced the Nationals' way this season, you're gonna be asking a lot for them to repeat.

Maybe.

Maybe Andrew Alvarez? No, he's young.

Actually, I'd look at moving a relief arm like Clayton Beater if the return was a proven starter.

We need starting pitching depth.

Yeah.

Uh, Andrew Alvarez, um, he sort of strikes...

He's, like, a kind of an edge case where he's just, um, he's kind of a reliever that, that was b- barely a starter, so I d- I don't know if he des- deserves to be here.

It's almost like if I had put in a game started, um, number in here, he wouldn't be in here at all.