Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

Tuesday night’s outing wasn’t anything to write home about — four hits and five runs allowed over 5 2/3 innings in a 6-3 Washington Nationals loss to the Houston Astros — but Andrew Alvarez is having a good season. Across 12 appearances, including six as a starter, the 27-year-old southpaw from Los Alamitos, California has tossed 47 frames with a 3.64 ERA, a 2.97 FIP, and a 25.4% strikeout rate. Pitching in his first full big league season, he has been one of the few bright spots on a staff that is statistically among the worst in the majors.

Velocity isn’t his carrying tool. At 92.3 mph, Alvarez’s fastball ranks in just the 18th percentile for velocity. What the 2021 12th-round pick out of Cal Poly brings to the table is a five-pitch arsenal that leans heavily on a somewhat atypical breaking ball combination. In terms of usage, his mix has been 29.8% four-seamers, 28.7% curveballs, 24.7% gyro sliders, 13.9% sinkers, and 2.9% changeups.

The left-hander’s self-identity as a pitcher pretty much mirrors his profile.

“The Nationals have certainly helped me grow my game and understand who I am,” Alvarez told me prior to a recent game. “I’m not someone who is going to overpower you with stuff, but rather keep you off balance, get some weak contact and a little bit of chase here and there, a little bit of swing-and-miss. For me, it’s more about moving the ball around, changing speeds and locations, and [getting] a lot of groundballs”

Alvarez’s 57.1% groundball rate is tied for sixth highest among hurlers with at least 40 frames on the season. Moreover, his chase rate (57th percentile) and whiff rate (65th percentile) are both comfortably above league average.

And again, Alvarez’s breaking ball combination is atypical, as well as his primary attack plan against most hitters.

“The one thing that’s unique about Andrew is how similar in velocity his curveball and slider are, yet the break is very different,” explained Dave Jageler, who is in his 21st season calling games alongside Charlie Slowes in Washington’s radio booth. “Normally, a slider and a curveball have a much different velocity, so sometimes, as we’re 10 stories above the field at Nationals Park, it’s hard for me to tell the difference between the two. They’ve both been effective pitches. Even though he doesn’t overpower you with his fastball, because of his breaking balls, he has been averaging over a strikeout per inning.”

Asked what he considers to be his best pitch, Alvarez cited Uncle Charlie, albeit that came with a caveat. He also echoed Jageler on their respective characteristics.

“I would say probably my curveball,” Alvarez opined. “But I think the short slider, my gyro slider, helps it out. They complement each other. They’re similar speeds. They can range anywhere from 80 to 87 [mph], but are typically both around 83-84. At times, the curveball will actually be faster than the gyro, which isn’t normal.”

Per Baseball Savant, Alvarez’s hook is averaging 82.9 mph, his gyro 83.9 mph. As for the movement profiles, they are indeed markedly different.

“If you look at the axis on the graphs, my slider is right under the zero line,” Alvarez said. “The curveball is more in the negative 12-13 vert range, with some horizontal. It can actually be as much as negative 18 vert. It kind of depends on what I’m trying to accomplish in a certain count. Same with the horizontal. I might be going back foot to a righty, or I might be trying to keep it in that lane.”

He went on to explain that while his gyro slider has long been a part of his repertoire, the curveball is relatively recent. He initially began throwing a knuckle-curve in 2023, but upon reaching Triple-A the following year, he found that he wasn’t getting much swing-and-miss, as hitters were laying off the 78- to 81-mph offering. Late in the campaign, one of his teammates had a suggestion.

“With about five or six games left in the 2024 season, Spenser Watkins — he’s actually a sports agent now — told me that I should try a sweeper grip,” explained Alvarez. “I did, and it was coming out of my hand with great movement. The speed was also great. At that point, it was a matter of being able to control it and throw it for strikes. It became a good pitch for me.

“It isn’t a sweeper,” Alvarez added. “With my arm slot, it’s more of a slurve. A sweeper grip applies more pressure, [and] there are certain pinpoints. Guys like Matt Brash, with the Mariners, are really torquing the sweeper in their hand, really feeling it on the horseshoe. With my higher slot, it’s a slurve.”

Circling back to Jageler, the veteran broadcaster reached Washington two decades prior to Alvarez. As chance would have it, he was behind a Triple-A microphone calling games for a pair of southpaws who shared much in common with the Nationals hurler.

“When I was in Pawtucket, we had a pitcher named Abe Alvarez,” Jageler said of the Cal State Long Beach left-hander who got cups of coffee with the Boston Red Sox in 2004, 2005, and 2006. “I’ve had to be careful on the air not to have Abe Alvarez come out of my mouth and confuse our fans. Abe Alvarez had a similar build, and while he maybe wasn’t as hard a thrower as Andrew Alvarez, he had [good breaking stuff]. There was another tall lefty on the 2005 PawSox team, as well. Lenny DiNardo had a decent big league career as a touch-and-feel finesse lefty, and now he’s a successful radio announcer [for the Red Sox].”

And then there is the current pitcher who has relatively little in common with the current-day Alvarez. Along with Brooks Lee and Drew Thorpe, his college teammates included Bryan Woo.

“Oh, we’re definitely a lot different,” acknowledged Alvarez. “My fastball is pretty much the opposite of Bryan’s. He has the low VAA [vertical approach angle] and gets all that ride, all that carry, whereas I’m more steep. Mine isn’t a swing-and-miss pitch. It’s not your typical good vertical-break fastball, although it does get some perceived cut when I throw it glove side. I’ve got a lot of steepness on all of my pitches. Hitters have told me that the short slider is hard to pick up in terms of whether it’s going to go down or not. That’s why it pairs well with my curveball. Sequencing is really important to me.”