Jose

Alvarado

The 29-year-old southpaw had been away from the team on a personal matter, but he returned on Saturday and will be active for Sunday’s series finale against the Braves. Yunior Marte was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley in a corresponding move.

Alvarado has left the team to deal with a personal matter, though The Athletic’s Matt Gelb said he was at the ballpark earlier today. Hopefully, everything is OK for the left-hander and his family.

Estévez, 31, has been outstanding in the closer’s role for the Angels again this season — posting a 2.38 ERA, 0.74 WHIP and a 32/5 K/BB ratio over 34 innings of work while converting 20 saves. It seems likely that he would take over as the Phillies’ primary closer with Jeff Hoffman and Jose Alvarado falling back into setup roles, though the Phillies could opt for a full three-man committee much to the chagrin of fantasy managers everywhere.

The Phillies will reportedly send pitching prospects George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri to the Angels in the deal. It’ll be interesting to see how the Phillies’ late-inning mix shakes out with Estévez joining Jeff Hoffman and Jose Alvarado who have been sharing the load in the ninth inning.

This was a classic Alvarado implosion as he allowed the first two batters to reach base and then could not regain his composure. This was his first save opportunity in two weeks as Jeff Hoffman has taken the lionshare of them lately.

Hoffman could be inching his way ahead of José Alvarado in the Phillies’ bullpen pecking order. Alvarado got the eighth inning in this one with a five-run lead. That came against the top of the Braves’ lineup and Marcell Ozuna wound up taking him deep to cut the lead to two. Hoffman closed it out in the ninth inning and now has three saves in his last three appearances.

Alvarado was summoned to protect a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning at Wrigley Field and managed to work around a one-out single by David Bote to preserve the victory. The 29-year-old lefty has converted 13 of his 15 save opportunities this season for Philadelphia.

Alvarado did allow a one-out single and advanced the runner with a wild pitch, but he was never in any danger of blowing the lead. He now has 12 saves on the season as the main component of a Phillies closer group. He should remain a key piece of the bullpen throughout the season and is a good bet to lead the Phillies in saves even after the trade deadline.

Alvarado is normally one of the more reliable stoppers in baseball, but Sunday wasn’t a good example of it. The southpaw issued a pair of walks and gave up two hits, and while he wasn’t helped by his defense, it was still a disappointing effort where he threw just 18-of-35 pitches for strikes. Expect Alvarado to bounce back in his next few appearances, but this one stings a bit.

Alvarado worked around a one-out single from William Contreras to pick up his second save in the last three days, striking out Andruw Monasterio, Christian Yelich and Willy Adames to protect a two-run margin. The 29-year-old southpaw has converted 11 of his 12 save opportunities this season to go along with a solid 2.96 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 29/10 K/BB ratio across 27 1/3 innings (29 appearances). He’ll likely continue splitting save chances with Jeff Hoffman moving forward.