He’s a Miami native and Olympian. His new goal: Make it to MLB with hometown Marlins.
The reminders of one dream accomplished are seen by the tattoo on the inside of his left bicep. The five intertwined rings symbolic of the Olympic Games are forever etched on Eddy Alvarez’s skin.
It was a little more than six years ago when Alvarez, a Miami native and son of Cuban parents, won a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He was the leadoff skater for Team USA’s 5,000-meter short-track speedskating relay team that finished a fraction of a second behind the host Russians in the finals.
The reminders of his second dream, his second love, surround him daily. They’re magnified by the strides he made in the past year and the position he found himself in during the past month.
Alvarez, 30, is a nonroster invitee for the Miami Marlins this spring training. He put his baseball career on hold after high school to pursue the Olympics. Six years after winning that silver medal, he could be one or two breaks from making his Major League Baseball debut for his hometown team.
Alvarez finished last season in Triple A, the highest level in the minor leagues. Injuries slowed him down early, but the switch-hitting, versatile infielder still managed to post a .323 batting average with 18 doubles, 12 home runs, 43 RBI and 48 runs scored in 66 games. All this while recording just a 19.6 percent strikeout rate.
“For me, it’s my first chance of getting eyes on him,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “But obviously he’s a guy that knows how to play.”
Now, he’s just waiting for his moment.
“It can be a little nerve-wracking sometimes feeling like I have to do more than I really do,” Alvarez said, “but understanding this game, you can’t control the situation or certain events. That’s something that I really improved on last year, just going about my business and bringing my best ability to the ballpark every day because I know that anything can happen at any given moment in time.”
Eddy Alvarez’s path to the majors
So what will it take for Alvarez to finally break through and make his MLB debut? He will likely need a few breaks to go his way.
Mattingly compared Alvarez to Jon Berti, the team’s super-utility player who they signed to a minor-league deal last offseason. Berti, who impressed with his versatility on defense and his speed on the basepaths, made his Marlins debut on April 20 after a few fringe players underperformed early in the season.
Alvarez will likely begin the season in Triple A Wichita, but the fact that the MLB coaching staff is getting time to see him in person is a positive.
“You see a guy that’s polished and that knows where to be on the field,” Mattingly said. “It’s good to get a look at him.”
And Alvarez understands the situation. With baseball, especially as a minor-leaguer, it’s about being in the right position at the right time.
“We’re pieces of the puzzle,” Alvarez said. “If I fit in a certain algorithm, then it’ll be time for me to go. It’s tough as a baseball player, it really is, not knowing much, but you just have to play.”
Balancing two dreams
Alvarez has been playing since he was 5 years old, about the same time that he received his first pair of skates as a Christmas gift.
He moved to the ice at age 9 and did what he could to balance both sports.
But as he neared the end of his preps career at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High, Alvarez found himself at a juncture. He had a scholarship offer to play baseball at St. Thomas University. He also had the 2010 Winter Olympics approaching.
So the kid nicknamed “Eddy the Jet” took off the cleats and put away the bats and gloves for a couple years. Speedskating became the priority.
Alvarez won gold at the World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships in 2009 but fell short of qualifying for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
He ventured back to baseball in 2011, playing at Salt Lake Community College in Utah, before undergoing surgery on both knees in early 2012. He had the itch to make one more run at the Olympics.
He qualified for the Sochi games, becoming the first Cuban-American male speedskater to make the U.S. Olympic team. On the final day of events, after striking out on three individual events, Alvarez got his medal in the 5,000-meter relay.
Eddy Alvarez’s return to the diamond
With his Olympic goal accomplished, Alvarez now continues to inch his way toward his MLB target.
“I put down the skates,” Alvarez said, “and gave it a go.”
The Chicago White Sox gave him an opportunity almost immediately, and Alvarez spent the next five seasons working his way through the minor-league levels.
“I had no idea it was going to be at a pro level [right away],” Alvarez said. “I had expectations to go back to college and get my name out there more. I didn’t know if pro ball was in the plans for me. I didn’t know it was going to happen right away. That started my process a lot sooner.”
Just before the 2019 season started, the White Sox traded him to the Marlins, his hometown team.
He impressed enough in his lone season inside the organization to get an invite to major-league spring training.
Now, he’s ready to leave his mark on baseball like he did on speed skating.
“I understand the nature of the game,” Alvarez said. “Just being able to experience that caliber of a level of a sport, the highest level of a sport, has helped me immensely to transition into my baseball career and to just take it day by day.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 4:58 PM.
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