Instead of choosing between dreams, Eddy Alvarez is living both
This story was originally written by Scott Kornberg on Sept. 3, 2015 for the Winston-Salem Dash’s Dashboard Blog, when Eddy Alvarez was still in High-A. Nearly five years later, Alvarez completed his second dream, making his MLB debut for the Miami Marlins on August 5, 2020 at Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The North Carolina sun doesn’t as much shine as it does roast the landscape beneath. It’s another scorching August day in Winston-Salem, getting warmer and warmer as if somebody left the microwave on. But there’s Eddy Alvarez at home plate, early to the ballpark, taking some swings from the right side. He finishes those, grabs a new bat, morphs into a new stance and practices from the left side.
Alvarez may already have an Olympic silver medal, but he’d do just about anything to walk into a Major League clubhouse and see his name on a jersey hanging from a locker.
Baseball America calculates the chances of a signed draft pick making the majors at about 17 percent, meaning the odds are stacked against even the most talented of draftees. But what about for the 25-year-old Alvarez, who gave up baseball twice to pursue his Olympic dream of speed skating? And at what cost is a dream too fleeting to believe in anymore?
“It’s the dream I had since I was a little kid,” said Alvarez. “It was always to be an Olympic speed skater and a professional baseball player — And when I say professional baseball player, I mean make the big leagues.
“I don’t want that what-if factor. I’m one of those people that develop late, so what if these are my peak years in baseball? I would never know unless I put myself out there, and if I fail, I fail. But I’m definitely going to put in 100 percent, all my mind, my spirit, my soul into this game.”
Alvarez’s word should be taken seriously. After passing on a baseball scholarship to St. Thomas University (Fla.) following high school, Alvarez competed in the 2008 and 2009 World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, winning a gold medal in 2009. However, he narrowly missed competing in the 2010 Olympics, and in an effort to give his ailing knees a rest, returned to baseball.
Even though he had not played baseball since graduating high school in 2008, the Miami, Fla., native immediately regained his timing, performing at an all-conference level in 2011 for Salt Lake Community College (Utah). Alvarez batted .311/.390/.478 with 16 doubles, two home runs and 46 RBIs in 63 games.
The switch to baseball, however, did not help his knees, and he underwent surgery in early 2012 to repair torn patellar tendons. Undeterred despite being immobile following the surgery for four weeks, Alvarez jumped into physical therapy, working his way back towards full strength. Less than a year after the surgery, Alvarez made the United States’ speed skating World Cup Team in December 2012. In 2014, he became the first Cuban-American male speed skater to make a U.S. Olympic team.
“It was an absolute honor,” Alvarez said. “I worked very hard for that moment and it really hit me when I was able to walk the Opening Ceremonies in the very front of the line.”
Alvarez did more than just lead the U.S. at the Opening Ceremonies in Sochi; he won a silver medal in the 5,000-meter relay.
“It was such a relief because all I could think about on the podium was the amount of struggle I went through with all my injuries and my career switch and all the sacrifices my parents made,” said Alvarez. “It made it worth it.”
With the silver medal around his neck, Alvarez still has a piece of unfinished business: The dream of playing in the major leagues.
“In skating, I knew that 2014 was going to be it for me, Alvarez said. “I had my heart set on trying baseball again after.”
Alvarez signed with the Chicago White Sox in June of 2014 and again seemed to immediately have his timing down. With the Rookie-Level Arizona League White Sox and Low-A Kannapolis Intimidators, Alvarez raked to a .346/.433/.500 tune, smacking five home runs to go along with 26 RBIs, 32 runs scored and 34 stolen bases in 45 games.
However, picking up baseball again after three years was not nearly as easy as the numbers made it appear. The rigors of speed skating demanded that Alvarez train his lower body constantly for years, neglecting the upper body to keep weight off. Upon his return to baseball, Alvarez struggled at first to regain his old bat speed. Looking for an edge, he turned to his older brother Nick, who played in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization from 2000 through 2006, reaching as high as Double-A. Nick has helped reinforce Eddy’s dream.
“He’s awesome to have,” said Eddy. “He has seven years of minor league experience so I’m just kind of picking his brain, (seeing) how each level is and what I should expect in certain situations.”
Eddy has taken his play to another level this season, splitting the campaign between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem. His 51 steals rank fifth in all of Minor League Baseball, a skill he credits to his time in speed skating.
“It’s just watching the game, watching for certain signs, what the catcher might do, what he might not do. (It’s the) same with the pitcher, if he sometimes quick pitches or whatnot,” Alvarez said. “ You’ve got to be up-to-date on what your opponent is doing. That’s something I also did in skating very well when it came to strategy in skating. It’s just a matter of watching and learning and seizing the opportunity.”
In order to have many opportunities to swipe bases, Alvarez has had to get on base often. He credits his mental hitting approach to his brother and stolen base prowess to speed skating. However, he can tally his ability to mash against both righties and lefties because of a willingness to listen and change. Prior to his second go-around in baseball at St. Thomas, Alvarez had hit strictly left-handed. However, at the suggestion of the coaching staff at St. Thomas, Alvarez gave switch-hitting a try.
The adjustment has proven to be invaluable. In 2015, Alvarez has batted .247/.430/.340 against righties, increasing that output to .294/.464/.437 against southpaws. It’s led to a combined .296/.414/.426 line this year.
“My college coach was like, ‘You ever thought of switch hitting,’ and I was like, ‘You know, I thought about it but I never really tried it,’” said Alvarez. “So that whole year I tried switch-hitting. And last year was my second year switch-hitting and this is my third year switch-hitting. You have two sides of the brain, everything works differently, it’s like two different people hitting.”
Part of the reason switch-hitting may feel like two different styles to Alvarez is that, to him, it is. From the left side, he uses a black bat that he holds far away from his body, arms extended with the barrel pointed towards the sky blue canopy above. However, as a right-hand batter, Alvarez uses a different bat, wrapping it around his back right shoulder.
The two different stances evolved out of trying to be comfortable at each side of the plate. However, while Alvarez may look different prior to the pitch, the ball in flight to home plate shows two things: the same exact approach and swing path.
“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why, I just fell into different stances and that’s where I feel the most comfortable,” Alvarez said. “I still have the same approach (from both sides).”
Back at the ballpark, the sun starts to set in the North Carolina sky. The air is a tad cooler now, yet still relatively thick as fans stroll inside. Early work led right into batting practice, and now Alvarez is preparing for another game. It’s just one in a 140-game slog to the finish line of a long season, but who knows what impact it might have in continuing to climb higher in the White Sox system? One hit, one ground ball could make all the difference in improbably making a dream a reality.
At what point is a dream too fleeting? A boy gets a wiffleball bat at three-year-old, goes roller skating at five, then dreams of playing in the Major Leagues and competing in the Olympics. Eddy Alvarez already has the silver medal. Can he live out the second dream?
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Postscript: I wrote this story five years ago while working for the Winston-Salem Dash, hoping one day that Eddy Alvarez would see his name on the back of a jersey in a big league clubhouse. At the time, I was 24 years old, so unsure of my place in the world, in baseball and in broadcasting — Honestly, I still am. Most people don’t realize this, but when you work alongside these players and coaches and they’re so kind to you even though you are just the unimportant broadcaster, and they trust and respect you to tell their story… it simply becomes impossible to not root for them to achieve all of their goals and dreams. You lose so much of the team fandom that got you into sports to begin with for these exceptional people who sacrifice so much just for the minute shot at making it to the major leagues.
I figured I’d never see Eddy once that 2015 season ended. That’s just so much of life in the minor leagues — guys get promoted, traded, released, etc. It just so happened that 2019 was our first year in the Marlins’ organization, and he was assigned to start the season in Jacksonville. I remember walking to the clubhouse for our initial meeting with the team, unsure if Eddy would remember me. He did a double-take, smiled, walked right up to me and gave me a huge hug.
I ran into him in the clubhouse again before the Spring Training game I broadcast in February between the Marlins and Orioles. Again, he gave me a big hug and we talked about becoming fathers in the upcoming months (my son was born in April and he will be a dad later this summer) and how amazing it was that we were both even briefly standing in a major league clubhouse from where we were in Winston-Salem in 2015. It was easy to tell just how close he felt he was to finally completing his second dream.
Five years is such a long time in the world of baseball. I wanted to retell this story because when I wrote it, Eddy Alvarez still had such a long journey ahead of him. I only saw tiny glimpses of everything he put in at various stops along the road to reach the major leagues. And yet, whenever our paths crossed, even though I’m just the broadcaster, he made me feel like a fellow Olympian.
To see Eddy live out his second dream this week is something I will cherish for my entire career, because not only is Eddy an exceptional story, he is an exceptional person. There simply won’t be a better moment in baseball this season than seeing him step on a big league field.
