Henderson Javier Álvarez (born April 18, 1990) is

Henderson Javier Álvarez (born April 18, 1990) is a Venezuelanprofessional baseball pitcher for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB). Álvarez played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011 and 2012, before he was traded to the Marlins in 2013. He threw a no-hitter for the Marlins on the last day of the 2013 season.

Minor league career

Álvarez made his professional baseball debut in 2007 with the DSL Blue Jays 1, going 1–2 with a 5.61 ERA. He signed with the Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent on August 17, 2008,^[1] and subsequently moved to the United States, where he pitched for the GCL Blue Jays, going 1–4 with a 5.63 ERA and a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.67. He was promoted to the Lansing Lugnuts of the Single-A Midwest League for the 2009 season, where he was an All-Star with a 9–6 win–loss record and a 3.47 ERA. He played 2010 with the High-ADunedin Blue Jays, where he was a Florida State League All-Star and was selected to the All-Star Futures Game, going 8–7 with a 4.33 ERA. He started 2011 back in Dunedin, but was promoted after two bad starts to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, where he was an Eastern League All-Star and was again selected to the Futures Game, going 8–4 with a 2.86 ERA

Major League career

Toronto Blue Jays

On August 9, 2011, Álvarez was called up to replace Wil Ledezma, who was outrighted to the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas 51s. He took the rotation spot of Carlos Villanueva, and made his career debut on August 10 against the Oakland Athletics^[2][3] pitching 5²⁄₃ innings and giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits, with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk.^[4]

On August 31, Álvarez recorded his first career win in a 13–0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched 8 full innings, giving up just 3 hits, no walks and 5 strikeouts. He faced former Blue Jay starter Jo-Jo Reyes, who went only 2²⁄₃ innings and surrendered 8 hits and 7 earned runs in his first game against his former team. At 21 years and 135 days, Álvarez becomes the youngest Jays' pitcher to record a win since Kelvim Escobar in 1997, and the youngest starting pitcher to record the win for the Jays since Phil Huffman in 1979.^[5]

He wound up appearing in 10 starts for the Blue Jays, going 1-3 in 63.2 innings. He issued just 8 walks while striking out 40.

On May 4, 2012, Álvarez threw his first career complete game and shutout, defeating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 4–0. The previous night saw teammate Brandon Morrow throw a shutout as well, making them the first Blue Jays to throw back-to-back shutouts since Jack Morris and Al Leiter did so on June 16 and 17, 1993.^[6]

2012 turned out to be a bad season for Álvarez. He finished 9-14 with a 4.85 ERA in 31 starts. He struck out 79 batters in 187.1 innings pitched, amongst the lowest strikeout rates in the Majors in 2012.

Miami Marlins

On November 19, 2012, Álvarez was traded to the Miami Marlins along with Adeiny Hechavarria, Jeff Mathis, Yunel Escobar, Jake Marisnick, Anthony DeSclafani, and Justin Nicolino in exchange for Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson,José Reyes, John Buck, and Emilio Bonifacio.^[7] Alvarez spent most of the first half of the 2013 regular season on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation. He was activated from the 60-day disabled list on July 4, and made his first start as a Marlin that night against the Atlanta Braves. Tom Koehler was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Alvarez.^[8] Álvarez received a no-decision in his Marlins debut, pitching 5 innings and giving up 3 earned runs in a 4–3 win. Álvarez would earn his first win as a Marlin on July 26, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

On September 29, 2013, the final game of the Marlins 2013 season, Álvarez threw the 282nd no-hitter in MLB history, in a game against the Detroit Tigers. He allowed three base runners on an error, a walk, and a hit batter as the Marlins walked off in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch, 1-0. He became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the final game of the regular season since Mike Witt in 1984, when he did so for the California Angels.^[9]

He finished the 2013 season with a 5-6 record in 17 starts. Through 17 starts, Álvarez pitched in 102.2 innings while allowing just 2 home runs. The previous season he had allowed 29 home runs.

Álvarez opened the 2014 season with 2 complete game shutouts in his first 7 starts.^[10] Alvarez found unprecedented success in the first half of 2014, earning his first All-Star appearance. After earning an 8-5 record with a 2.48 ERA and a league-leading 3 shutouts, Alvarez was sent to the disabled list on August 1 with shoulder inflammation^[11] before being activated on August 16.^[12] He finished 2014 with a 12-7 record, the most wins for a Marlins pitcher, and a 2.65 ERA.

Pitching style

Álvarez is a sinkerballer with a 92–95 mph sinker, a 93–96 mph four-seam fastball, an 84–87 mph slider, and an 85–89 mph changeup. He also throws an occasional cutter (87–90). The slider is mostly to right-handed hitters and the changeup mostly against lefties. His pitches all have below-average whiff rates, and his strikeouts per 9 innings rate is only 4.1 as of 27 August 2012. However, his sinker has a ground ball/fly ball ratio of about 4:1.^[13]