Brewers hire ex-Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez in baseball operations, player development role
Former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez, who starred on their three wild-card teams from 2013-15, has found a post-playing job with one of their NL Central rivals.
The Milwaukee Brewers have hired Alvarez as a baseball operations and player development assistant. Alvarez, 34, is the son-in-law of Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy.
The Brewers today named Pedro Álvarez assistant - baseball operations and player development and Rickie Weeks assistant - player development. pic.twitter.com/yA4bu28WI2
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 4, 2022
The Pirates selected Alvarez out of Vanderbilt with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft in hopes that he would become a franchise cornerstone at third base and in the middle of the order. He batted .236/.309/.441 with 108 doubles, 131 home runs and 401 RBIs in six seasons with the Pirates.
Alvarez had a breakout season in 2012, when he hit 30 homers and had 85 RBIs. The following year, he was an All-Star and won a Silver Slugger, when he tied for the NL lead with 36 homers and had 100 RBIs as the Pirates ended a 20-year string of losing seasons by clinching a wild-card berth.
Alvarez became the first player in baseball history to record an RBI in each of his first six postseason games. But he also led the NL in strikeouts (186) and NL third basemen in errors (27).
Both became problematic, as Alvarez provided power but never came close to matching the .254 batting average of his rookie year. Alvarez also developed a case of the yips, and his inability to make the throw from third to first prompted his move across the diamond after he committed 24 errors at third in 2014.
The Pirates non-tendered Alvarez following the 2015 season, and he signed a free-agent deal with the Baltimore Orioles. He hit 22 homers in his first season with the Orioles. In 168 games over three seasons with Baltimore, Alvarez batted .238 with 23 doubles, 31 homers and 71 RBIs. He was designated for assignment in June 2018. Alvarez signed with the Miami Marlins that fall but opted out in March 2019.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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