Latest news with #Alvarado
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Phillies' José Alvarado Could Be Trade Candidate for Retooling Clubs
Phillies' José Alvarado Could Be Trade Candidate for Retooling Clubs originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Philadelphia Phillies, despite currently holding the best record in the National League, have needs to address before making another crack at the World Series. Namely, they could use at least one more back-end reliever and an upgrade in the outfield. Advertisement But unlike most clubs, who only have minor league prospects to offer, Philly may have a different valuable commodity. José Alvarado was an elite reliever just two years ago, and his rocket arm was working well early this season (2.70 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 25 Ks in 20 innings) before the league dropped an 80-game suspension on him for a banned substance. Whether Alvarado's mistake was an honest one or not, it put the Phils in a bad spot. And when he does come back from his suspension, it might not be with open arms - soon after, he'll still have to sit out the playoffs. Which is why they should consider cashing in if he provides them good value. José Alvarado was a perfect seven-for-seven converting saves this season. He also had 64 overall holds dating back to 2021, when the Phillies first acquired Streicher-Imagn Images The lefty carries a $9 million club option for next season - not cheap, but still less than the $11 million annual figure that current closers Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estévez got in free agency this past offseason. It's not a bad pitch for teams with their eyes on 2026. Advertisement The Baltimore Orioles didn't envision being one of the worst clubs in baseball after two straight postseason appearances. With a few of their relievers on expiring deals, they could see Alvarado as part of the answer to a quick turnaround next year. It also helps that Philly has been linked to center fielder Cedric Mullins. The NL Central and West are both in four-way races at the moment. The same can be said for every division in the AL. Eventually, someone *should* fall behind the pack and focus on a retool for next year. But even with that, MLB will no doubt have a seller's market this year. The demand for quality additions far outweighs what's expected to be available. Trades won't be made easily. If Alvarado's high-risk, high-reward appeal helps lower the Phillies' prospect cost, they ought to at least consider it. Related: Dave Dombrowski Details Phillies' Offseason Trade for Jesús Luzardo This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
MLB insider breaks down Philadelphia Phillies' rise to National League's best record
The Philadelphia Phillies have emerged as the National League's hottest team amid their current streak. They've won seven straight after sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies to improve to 32-18, first in the NL East and the best record in the NL. Over their last 24 games, they've won 19 times. In May, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber has racked up eight of his MLB-leading 17 home runs — tied with Shohei Ohtani — and posted a 1.015 OPS. Advertisement During an appearance on the 'Fair Territory' podcast, The Athletic's MLB insider Ken Rosenthal explained what has fueled the Phillies' rise up the standings. 'For starters, I would suggest their schedule of late has been kind of easy… You have to win the games against the opponent in front of you,' explained Rosenthal. 'The last six have been against the Rockies and the Pirates, they should be winning those games and they are. Also in this stretch, they've played Tampa Bay, they've played Cleveland, they've played Washington. It's been a little breather for them in the schedule.' Rosenthal highlighted how the Phillies offense has come alive lately. Advertisement 'But this is, from an offensive standpoint, one of the best teams in the league. Sixth in the majors at runs per game (5.7). Their rotation, as we know, is one of the best in the game as well, fourth in rotation ERA (3.27). The question going forward is going to be the bullpen and the loss of Alvarado only highlights that.' Philadelphia's bullpen took a damaging blow when top reliever Jose Alvarado was suspended 80 games after testing positive for a PED. Even though he's eligible to return in late August, he will be prohibited from pitching in the playoffs if the Phillies advance that far. 'They probably were going to need at least one reliever even with Alvarado and now losing that left-handed presence, one of the hardest throwing lefties in the game, they're going to be a team that is definitely going to be in search of bullpen help at the deadline,' Rosenthal said. He continued: 'It's possible that if their rotation stays healthy come the playoffs they can use Ranger Suarez in the bullpen as they've done in the past. It gets a little dicey because Suarez is eligible for free agency but he has done it in the past and I can't see that hurting his market if he closes out a World Series.' The Phillies will look to continue their winning ways when they begin a three-game series against the Athletics on Friday in Sacramento.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Only a fraction of fire cleanup workers are protecting themselves against toxic debris. One community center is fighting to change that
A crew of 10, many sporting bright orange National Day Laborer Organizing Network T-shirts, funneled out of a Mexican restaurant on the edge of the Eaton burn scar. Four months — to the day — after winds smashed a tree into a car next to NDLON's Pasadena Community Job Center and soot blanketed the neighborhood, a University of Illinois Chicago professor, NDLON staff and volunteers sorted into cars under the midday sun and began discreetly traveling every road in fire-stricken Altadena. They watched nearly 250 crews, working long hours (for good pay) under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, remove the toxic debris covering the landscape in the wake of the fire. Of the over 1,000 workers they surveyed in the burn area on May 7 and 9, only a quarter wore gloves, a fifth wore a protective mask, and a mere tenth donned full Tyvek suits, as required by California's fire cleanup safety regulations, the group's report, released Thursday, found. For Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director and co-founder of NDLON, the results aren't surprising. NDLON — a Pasadena-based, national network of day laborer organizations, focused on improving the lives of day laborers, migrant and low-wage workers — has been responding to post-disaster worker safety issues for decades. Alvarado couldn't help but remember the laborers he and NDLON supported during the cleanup following 9/11 over 20 years ago. 'Those workers are no longer alive. They died of cancer,' he said. 'These are workers I'd known for decades — their sons, their cousins.' As Alvarado watches a new generation of laborers get to work in the aftermath of the L.A. fires, his call to action is simple: 'I just don't want to see people dying.' NDLON has seen lax PPE use time and time again following disasters. Since 2001, NDLON has dispatched to countless hurricanes, floods and fires to support what the organization calls the 'second responders' — the workers who wade through the rubble and rebuild communities after the devastation. Eaton was no different. 'We always respond around the country to floods, fires, no matter where it is,' said Cal Soto, workers' rights director for NDLON, who helped survey workers in the burn area. For the Eaton fire, 'we just happen to be literally in the shadow of it.' When wildfires push into developed areas like Altadena, they chew through not just trees but residents' cars, plastics, batteries and household goods like detergents and paint thinners, releasing hosts of toxic chemicals previously locked away. They include heavy metals like lead and mercury, capable of damaging the nervous system and kidneys, as well as arsenic and nickel, known carcinogens. Organic materials like wood and oil that don't fully burn can leave polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — or PAHs — which can harm the immune system and cause sickness in the short term and cancer in the long term. Read more: The L.A. wildfires left lead and other toxic material in the soil of burn zones. Here are their health risks Their primary opportunities to enter the body are through the inhalation of toxic air or through ingestion, after collecting on the hands of a person who then touches their face or uses their hands to eat. They can also, to a lesser extent, absorb directly through the skin. Masks and disposable head-to-toe coverall suits act as a barrier against the dangerous contaminants. The responsibility to ensure workers are using those protective barriers on the job ultimately falls on the employer, said Soto. However, the breakdown of the safety standards can happen anywhere in the chain: The state's OSHA division can fail to communicate rules to companies and enforce them. Employers can fail to educate their employees or provide the correct PPE. Workers themselves — despite it all — can choose to remove their PPE on long, hot days where a plastic suit and heavy duty mask feel suffocating. 'Sometimes it's uncomfortable to wear all of that crap — particularly when it's hot," said Alvarado, who was a day laborer before founding NDLON. "Sometimes you feel like you're suffocated.' NDLON and its Pasadena Community Job Center, within hours of the Eaton fire, became a hub for the community's response. Its volunteers handed out PPE, food and donations to workers and community members. By the end of January, it had hundreds of helping hands clearing Pasadena's parks and streets of debris to assist overwhelmed city employees. At the same time, day labor, construction and environmental remediation workers quickly rushed into the burn zone along with the donations, media attention and celebrities. Like clockwork, so did the labor safety violations. In a dimly-lit Pasadena church in late January, dozens of day laborers watched as Carlos Castillo played the role of an impatient boss, barking directions at three workers standing before them. 'Hurry up,' Castillo told them in Spanish, handing out boxes of protective suits and masks. One woman, standing in front of the room, fumbled with the straps of a respirator. Debora Gonzalez, health and safety director NDLON, eyed the day laborer's efforts before asking the crowd: 'What is our friend missing?' 'Gloves!' someone called out. Gonzalez and other volunteers called on the crowd, who quickly pointed out more problems with the equipment that the three workers had hastily donned. One had a mask that wasn't sufficient for toxic cleanup; Gonzalez also pointed out that his beard would allow dust to infiltrate. Castillo, a volunteer trainer and president of the D.C.-based immigrant worker-support nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos de Washington D.C., reminded them that when they are cleaning up an area after a wildfire, there could be a range of noxious chemicals in the ash. Gonzalez said she wanted them to be prepared. 'Tomorrow we'll practice again,' she told them. NDLON set up the free trainings for any day laborers interested in supporting fire recovery after some laborers began picking up work cleaning homes contaminated with smoke and ash near the fire zones. Employers are supposed to provide protective equipment to workers and train them on how to use it, but 'many times employers want to move quickly. They just want to get the job done and get the job done as quickly as possible,' said Nadia Marin-Molina, NDLON co-executive director. 'Unfortunately, workers' health goes by the wayside.' As NDLON worked to educate day laborers, another group of workers moved in: The Army Corps of Engineers' contractors. Alvarado quickly noticed that many of the corps' workers were not wearing the required PPE. Never one to let the 'Day Laborer' in NDLON's name limit his compassion, Alvarado reached out to a longtime collaborator, Nik Theodore, a University of Illinois Chicago professor who studies labor standards enforcement, to do something about it. A week later, Juan Pablo Orjuela, a labor justice organizer with NDLON, made sure the air was recirculating in the car as the team drove through the burn zone, surveying workers for the NDLON and University of Illinois Chicago report in early May. He watched an AllTrails map documenting their progress — they'd drive until they had traced every street in northeast Altadena. Read more: When FEMA failed to test soil for toxic substances after the L.A. fires, The Times had it done. The results were alarming Orjuela spotted an Army Corps crew working on a home and pulled the car to the curb. 'Eight workers — no gloves, no Tyvek suit,' he said. Nestor Alvarenga, a day laborer and volunteer with NDLON, sat in the back, tediously recording the number of workers, how many were wearing protective equipment and the site's address into a spreadsheet on an iPad with a beefy black case. One worker walked up to the car; Orjuela slowly lowered the window. 'Do you guys need anything?' the worker asked. 'No, we're OK,' Orjuela said, 'we'll get out of your way.' Orjuela rolled up the window and pulled away. 'I don't really have to tell anybody what I'm doing,' he said. 'I'm not being antagonistic, but you know … I'm just not saying anything to anybody.' Theodore and NDLON hope the window survey, spanning 240 job sites with more than 1,000 total workers, can raise awareness for safety and health concerns in the burn areas, help educate workers, and put pressure on the government to more strictly enforce compliance. 'This was no small sample by any means,' Theodore said. 'This was an attempt to be as comprehensive as possible and the patterns were clear.' For Soto, the results are a clear sign that, first and foremost, employers are not upholding their responsibility to ensure their workers' safety. 'It's the responsibility of the employer,' he said. 'I want to be clear that we have that expectation — that demand — always.' Yet the window survey found even job sites where the PPE requirements are explicitly listed by the employer on a poster at the site, usage was still low. The reality, NDLON organizers said, is that the state must step in to help enforce the rules. 'I understand that the disaster was colossal, and I never expected the government to have the infrastructure to respond immediately,' said Alvarado, 'but at this point, making sure workers have PPE, that's a basic thing that the government should be doing.' Former Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
22-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Only a fraction of fire cleanup workers are protecting themselves against toxic debris. One community center is fighting to change that
A crew of 10, many sporting bright orange National Day Laborer Organizing Network T-shirts, funneled out of a Mexican restaurant on the edge of the Eaton burn scar. Four months — to the day — after winds smashed a tree into a car next to NDLON's Pasadena Community Job Center and soot blanketed the neighborhood, a University of Illinois Chicago professor, NDLON staff and volunteers sorted into cars under the midday sun and began discreetly traveling every road in fire-stricken Altadena. They watched nearly 250 crews, working long hours (for good pay) under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, remove the toxic debris covering the landscape in the wake of the fire. Of the over 1,000 workers they surveyed in the burn area on May 7 and 9, only a quarter wore gloves, a fifth wore a protective mask, and a mere tenth donned full Tyvek suits, as required by California's fire cleanup safety regulations, the group's report, released Thursday, found. For Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director and co-founder of NDLON, the results aren't surprising. NDLON — a Pasadena-based, national network of day laborer organizations, focused on improving the lives of day laborers, migrant and low-wage workers — has been responding to post-disaster worker safety issues for decades. Alvarado couldn't help but remember the laborers he and NDLON supported during the cleanup following 9/11 over 20 years ago. 'Those workers are no longer alive. They died of cancer,' he said. 'These are workers I'd known for decades — their sons, their cousins.' As Alvarado watches a new generation of laborers get to work in the aftermath of the L.A. fires, his call to action is simple: 'I just don't want to see people dying.' NDLON has seen lax PPE use time and time again following disasters. Since 2001, NDLON has dispatched to countless hurricanes, floods and fires to support what the organization calls the 'second responders' — the workers who wade through the rubble and rebuild communities after the devastation. Eaton was no different. 'We always respond around the country to floods, fires, no matter where it is,' said Cal Soto, workers' rights director for NDLON, who helped survey workers in the burn area. For the Eaton fire, 'we just happen to be literally in the shadow of it.' When wildfires push into developed areas like Altadena, they chew through not just trees but residents' cars, plastics, batteries and household goods like detergents and paint thinners, releasing hosts of toxic chemicals previously locked away. They include heavy metals like lead and mercury, capable of damaging the nervous system and kidneys, as well as arsenic and nickel, known carcinogens. Organic materials like wood and oil that don't fully burn can leave polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — or PAHs — which can harm the immune system and cause sickness in the short term and cancer in the long term. Their primary opportunities to enter the body are through the inhalation of toxic air or through ingestion, after collecting on the hands of a person who then touches their face or uses their hands to eat. They can also, to a lesser extent, absorb directly through the skin. Masks and disposable head-to-toe coverall suits act as a barrier against the dangerous contaminants. The responsibility to ensure workers are using those protective barriers on the job ultimately falls on the employer, said Soto. However, the breakdown of the safety standards can happen anywhere in the chain: The state's OSHA division can fail to communicate rules to companies and enforce them. Employers can fail to educate their employees or provide the correct PPE. Workers themselves — despite it all — can choose to remove their PPE on long, hot days where a plastic suit and heavy duty mask feel suffocating. 'Sometimes it's uncomfortable to wear all of that crap — particularly when it's hot,' said Alvarado, who was a day laborer before founding NDLON. 'Sometimes you feel like you're suffocated.' NDLON and its Pasadena Community Job Center, within hours of the Eaton fire, became a hub for the community's response. Its volunteers handed out PPE, food and donations to workers and community members. By the end of January, it had hundreds of helping hands clearing Pasadena's parks and streets of debris to assist overwhelmed city employees. At the same time, day labor, construction and environmental remediation workers quickly rushed into the burn zone along with the donations, media attention and celebrities. Like clockwork, so did the labor safety violations. In a dimly-lit Pasadena church in late January, dozens of day laborers watched as Carlos Castillo played the role of an impatient boss, barking directions at three workers standing before them. 'Hurry up,' Castillo told them in Spanish, handing out boxes of protective suits and masks. One woman, standing in front of the room, fumbled with the straps of a respirator. Debora Gonzalez, health and safety director NDLON, eyed the day laborer's efforts before asking the crowd: 'What is our friend missing?' 'Gloves!' someone called out. Gonzalez and other volunteers called on the crowd, who quickly pointed out more problems with the equipment that the three workers had hastily donned. One had a mask that wasn't sufficient for toxic cleanup; Gonzalez also pointed out that his beard would allow dust to infiltrate. Castillo, a volunteer trainer and president of the D.C.-based immigrant worker-support nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos de Washington D.C., reminded them that when they are cleaning up an area after a wildfire, there could be a range of noxious chemicals in the ash. Gonzalez said she wanted them to be prepared. 'Tomorrow we'll practice again,' she told them. NDLON set up the free trainings for any day laborers interested in supporting fire recovery after some laborers began picking up work cleaning homes contaminated with smoke and ash near the fire zones. Employers are supposed to provide protective equipment to workers and train them on how to use it, but 'many times employers want to move quickly. They just want to get the job done and get the job done as quickly as possible,' said Nadia Marin-Molina, NDLON co-executive director. 'Unfortunately, workers' health goes by the wayside.' As NDLON worked to educate day laborers, another group of workers moved in: The Army Corps of Engineers' contractors. Alvarado quickly noticed that many of the corps' workers were not wearing the required PPE. Never one to let the 'Day Laborer' in NDLON's name limit his compassion, Alvarado reached out to a longtime collaborator, Nik Theodore, a University of Illinois Chicago professor who studies labor standards enforcement, to do something about it. A week later, Juan Pablo Orjuela, a labor justice organizer with NDLON, made sure the air was recirculating in the car as the team drove through the burn zone, surveying workers for the NDLON and University of Illinois Chicago report in early May. He watched an AllTrails map documenting their progress — they'd drive until they had traced every street in northeast Altadena. Orjuela spotted an Army Corps crew working on a home and pulled the car to the curb. 'Eight workers — no gloves, no Tyvek suit,' he said. Nestor Alvarenga, a day laborer and volunteer with NDLON, sat in the back, tediously recording the number of workers, how many were wearing protective equipment and the site's address into a spreadsheet on an iPad with a beefy black case. One worker walked up to the car; Orjuela slowly lowered the window. 'Do you guys need anything?' the worker asked. 'No, we're OK,' Orjuela said, 'we'll get out of your way.' Orjuela rolled up the window and pulled away. 'I don't really have to tell anybody what I'm doing,' he said. 'I'm not being antagonistic, but you know … I'm just not saying anything to anybody.' Theodore and NDLON hope the window survey, spanning 240 job sites with more than 1,000 total workers, can raise awareness for safety and health concerns in the burn areas, help educate workers, and put pressure on the government to more strictly enforce compliance. 'This was no small sample by any means,' Theodore said. 'This was an attempt to be as comprehensive as possible and the patterns were clear.' For Soto, the results are a clear sign that, first and foremost, employers are not upholding their responsibility to ensure their workers' safety. 'It's the responsibility of the employer,' he said. 'I want to be clear that we have that expectation — that demand — always.' Yet the window survey found even job sites where the PPE requirements are explicitly listed by the employer on a poster at the site, usage was still low. The reality, NDLON organizers said, is that the state must step in to help enforce the rules. 'I understand that the disaster was colossal, and I never expected the government to have the infrastructure to respond immediately,' said Alvarado, 'but at this point, making sure workers have PPE, that's a basic thing that the government should be doing.' Former Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report.
Newsweek
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Newsweek
Three External Options to Replace Jose Alvarado in Phillies Bullpen
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen was put in a bit of a compromising position when it was announced that closer Jose Alvarado would be suspended 80 games for violating MLB's PED policy. Philadelphia had hoped Jordan Romano, one of its biggest offseason acquisitions, would be the closer this season, but he's struggled in a major way. Because of the struggles from Romano and the Alvarado suspension, the Phillies have a bit of a hole in the back end of their bullpen. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 14: José Alvarado #46 of the Philadelphia Phillies throws a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during game one of a doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park on May 14, 2025 in... PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 14: José Alvarado #46 of the Philadelphia Phillies throws a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during game one of a doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park on May 14, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies defeated the Cardinals 2-1. MoreAlvarado will come off the suspended list in late August but will be ineligible for the postseason roster, should the Phillies make it in. Because of that, Philadelphia may need to go outside its organization in hopes of finding someone to replace Alvarado. If they decide to do so, here are three closers the Phillies should target. Felix Bautista, Baltimore Orioles The only reason we can't officially write off the Orioles this season is because the Washington Nationals did win the World Series in 2019 after starting the season 19-33. Baltimore is expected to continue to struggle, meaning that several players could be on the move prior to this season's trade deadline. Bautista is in the second year of a two-year contract, making him a prime candidate. He's bounced back well this season after missing all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. He has a 3.95 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 14 appearances and 13 2/3 innings pitched. If he is made available, Philadelphia should make Baltimore an offer that it can't refuse. Aroldis Chapman, Boston Red Sox Rather than an eye for an eye, this trade pitch would insert a lefty for a lefty. At the ripe age of 37, Chapman is pitching some of the best baseball of his career. He has a 1.89 ERA and 26 strikeouts across 21 appearances and 19 innings pitched this season. He is well on his way to being an All-Star for the first time since the 2021 season and he could be of great assistance in the Phillies bullpen. Chapman has pitched for just one NL team since 2017, meaning he would be a new face for most teams, which could benefit Philadelphia more than its opponents. Chapman throwing 100 mph fastballs at Citizens Bank Park in October would be an electric factory. David Robertson, Free Agent The former Phillies relief pitcher could be on his way back to Philadelphia and it is safe to assume he would be a welcome addition to the bullpen. He appeared in just 29 games across 1 1/2 seasons with the team and pitched to a 3.30 ERA in 30 innings pitched. It has already been reported that the Phillies reached out to Robertson prior to Alvarado being suspended and now that he has been, a Phillies-Robertson reunion could indeed be on the horizon. More MLB: Mets Manager Provides Brief Answer Regarding Juan Soto Controversy
