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Giants’ Jose Alvarez moves past injury horror: ‘I have to wear a cup now’

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Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports


SCOTTSDALE — It is hard to conceive of a tougher way to learn a lesson.

“I have to wear a cup now,” Jose Alvarez conceded Monday.

The context is every bit as horrifying as you can imagine. On Aug. 20 last year, Toronto’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sent a rocket that was smacked at 105 mph into Alvarez’s groin. He went down, but not immediately.

“I don’t even know how I made the play, but I made it,” he said, looking back at how he, crouched down, tracked down the baseball and flipped it to first for the out.

And then he collapsed to the grass.

“It’s tough to describe the pain that I felt in the moment,” the newest Giants reliever said over Zoom “… But the worst pain came after, when the doctor checked.”

Alvarez had surgery shortly afterward and said he was throwing bullpen sessions a month later. He said he feels 100 percent, and the Giants separated themselves by offering him a major league deal to reunite him with his 2019 manager, Gabe Kapler.

Alvarez has been a solid lefty option since 2015, first with the Tigers and then Phillies, compiling a 3.32 ERA in 301 1/3 innings in the span. His surgery after just 6 1/3 innings last year sent him into an uncertain free agency, in which he scored a (late) major league pact that guarantees him $1.25 million, with a club option for next year worth $1.5 million.

It’s a bit of an odd fit in a bullpen that already skewed left. Alvarez, who has no options left, joins Jake McGee and Jarlin Garcia as southpaw shoo-ins for the bullpen, which likely means Wandy Peralta, Sam Selman and Caleb Baragar open in Sacramento.

“Very dependable, durable reliever who is ready to take the ball in any situation,” Kapler said this weekend of the 31-year-old from Venezuela. “Throws strikes, misses some bats, pretty good against left and right. And a nice addition to our pen, going to fit right in.”

The Giants are valuing pitching depth more than ever because of the unknown impact the shortened season will have on arms. It’s also possible they are setting up to offload relievers at the trade deadline — as they did in 2019 — and will feel comfortable with the reinforcements they will have waiting in the wings.

Alvarez has been far better against lefties than righties in his career, though in his tiny sample size last year, he was tougher on righties. With the three-batter minimum, the Giants will need him to get everyone out.

“Two-seam, cutter, slider, changeup,” Alvarez said, describing his arsenal. “Got a little bit of everything so I can face lefties and righties.”

The Giants like the proven arm. Alvarez likes having more than his arm.

“I never wore a cup before, and obviously I got hit right in there,” he said. “Pretty weird and painful.”