Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yadier Alvarez was rated the No. 46 prospect in baseball by ESPN’s Keith Law in his 2017 ranking of the top 100 prospects. Alvarez was previously named the Dodgers’ top prospect by Baseball Prospectus and placed behind only Cody Bellinger in Baseball America’s rankings.
Alvarez is the first Dodgers prospect to appear in Law’s 2017 lists, which have been unveiled up to No. 41 at this point. Jose De Leon checked in at No. 73 one day after he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for Logan Forsythe.
The Dodgers signed Alvarez to a $16 million bonus on July 2, 2015, which was the first day of the 2015-16 international signing period. He was just 19 years old at the time and had been ranked the top international prospect by FanGraphs and No. 2 by MLB.com.
Alvarez was part of a significant haul when the Dodgers blew past their allotted bonus pool money on the first day of the signing period to ink the right-hander as well as shortstop Ronny Brito, infielder Oneil Cruz and outfielder Starling Heredia, among others.
Alvarez made his professional debut last June with the Arizona League Dodgers. He went 1-1 in five starts, striking out 26 batters in 20 innings pitched, and yielding a minuscule 1.80 ERA.
After that is was off to Low-A Great Lakes, where the right-hander concluded the 2016 season. Alvarez went 3-2 with a 2.29 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 39.1 innings across nine starts for the Loons.
He recorded 10 strikeouts in each of his first two starts with the Loons, and averaged 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings with the affiliate.
The Dodgers’ confidence in Alvarez reportedly led to the club refusing to make him available in a potential Brian Dozier trade, and seemingly played a factor in the team’s willingness to trade De Leon. Alvarez turns 21 years old on March 7.
