Alvarez uses experience, player-first approach to lead the SeaWolves in playoff race
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One of the best parts of Gabe Alvarez's job is when he gets to tell a player to pack his things for Triple-A Toledo.
One of the worst parts? Calling a player into his office to tell him he's headed back down to Class A West Michigan or that he has been released by the Detroit Tigers.
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The SeaWolves manager has an intimate knowledge of what professional baseball players go through emotionally, mentally and physically.
He grew up on baseball fields and in baseball clubhouses in the Mexican League as a kid following around his dad, Manny Alvarez.
As a player in the 1990s and 2000s, Alvarez experienced the highs of being promoted to the big leagues and joining the Tigers in St. Louis. He vividly recalls running out on the field at Busch Stadium, getting a hit in his first major league at-bat, then crushing two home runs the next day. The day after that he had another thrill as he made his debut at Comerica Park.
Alvarez, 48, has also been through the lows of toiling in Double-A for three years after playing three seasons in the big leagues before retiring from baseball.
After spending more than a decade coaching at USC, Alvarez has the SeaWolves in the thick of the Eastern League playoff race by taking an approach of understanding the players instead of just directing them.
“I spent a lot of years recruiting kids similar to the age of these guys and you get to know what makes these guys tick,” Alvarez said. “I feel like I can relate to them from everything I went through, and it's a big help for me. This job is just as much about developing these guys for the next level as it is winning ballgames, and the key is finding what motivates each player because they all respond differently.”
Alvarez's experience as a big-time player at USC and as a professional player who reached the big leagues is not lost on the SeaWolves.
“Gabe is a really good manager with a lot of experience,” pitcher Adam Wolf said. “He's very relatable with what he has been through and all of the stops along the way.”
“Gabe is a beauty,” pitcher Yaya Chentouf said with a smile. “He's awesome. He's serious when he needs to be serious, he's awesome when he needs to be awesome and sometimes we need tough love, and he knows exactly the times when we need it.”
Alvarez's approach not only has resulted in the SeaWolves being in first place in the final month of the season, but players like outfielder Kerry Carpenter and pitcher Garrett Hill have rocketed through the system, from Erie in the spring to Detroit in the summer.
“Gabe is a very smart, hard worker, and we knew what we were getting with him when he got here last year,” said Detroit Tigers vice president and head of player development Ryan Garko. “He's very good at developing relationships with the players and they trust him. He buys into everything we're trying to do as an organization and he's a great communicator with our staff. We've asked a lot of him as a first-time manager in a higher level and he has been great.”
Growing up in baseball
Manny Alvarez grew up in Southern California chasing the dream of playing baseball in the big leagues. He found a home, however, right across the border in the Mexican League.
“My dad played professional baseball for 13 years and played a little bit with the Angels organization and a little bit with the Phillies, but he was mostly in Mexico for the summer and winter leagues each season," Alvarez said.
While playing in Mexico, Manny Alvarez met his future wife. They had two kids who would play in the clubhouse or on the field as he continued his career.
“My sister and I were born there and we grew up going to the ballpark. That's where my love of baseball began,” Alvarez said. “I always tell him how grateful I am for my childhood to be at the ballpark every day. It prepared me to work in baseball, but it also made me appreciate how special it is to work at a baseball field every day.”
The Alvarez family would spend the summer months living in Southern California and the winter in Mexico as Manny Alvarez's playing career went on for several years.
Not only was it a chance for Gabe Alvarez to live baseball at six years old, but he was experiencing two cultures as well.
“Spanish is my first language and my mom still speaks it to me to make sure I don't forget it,” Alvarez said.
Rising star
Gabe Alvarez was a dominant infielder growing up in California. He was a star player at Bishop Amat High School and his stock was so high his senior year that not only was he fielding Division I offers but he was drafted in the third round of the 1992 MLB Draft by Oakland.
It was a big decision for an 18-year-old, especially with his ties to the A's.
“I knew I wanted to go to college. It was awfully tempting to sign with Oakland because a lot of the people in the organization were friends with my dad,” Alvarez said. “I just couldn't pass up USC. I didn't know it at the time, but I wasn't ready to go out and be on my own at 18 years old. I needed those three years of college to prepare me for regular everyday life.”
Alvarez continued his career at the University of Southern California, where he was a three-time All-American under legendary head coach Mike Gillespie.
“I had the time of my life at USC and wouldn't trade those three years for anything. Coach Gillespie was a great man and I learned a lot from him not only on the baseball field but off the field as well,” Alvarez said. “We remained very close until he passed away.”
In 1995, his final season, the Trojans reached the national championship game but lost to Cal State Fullerton 11-5.
“We knew we had a special group and that game still hurts. We ran into a tough Fullerton team with Mark Kotsay and Jeremy Giambi, but we had a great team with nine big-leaguers on the roster,” Alvarez said. “I really wish we could have won that last game. Not to make excuses, but if the rules were like they are now with a best-of-three series, I think that would have shifted to our favor instead of one game, but, yeah, I'm still not over it.”
Alvarez played with future big-leaguers including pitchers Brian Cooper, Seth Etherton and Randy Flores; catcher Chad Moeller, and outfielders Geoff Jenkins and Jacque Jones. Cooper and Etherton were SeaWolves along the way to the big leagues.
Alvarez was drafted by San Diego in the third round in 1995. It was the perfect situation as he was a hometown kid ready to play for the Padres.
After three seasons in Double-A, however, his life changed in a big way. Alvarez was taken by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1997 expansion draft and immediately traded to the Tigers.
“I was really excited to be drafted by San Diego to play in front of my family, but then I was drafted by Arizona,” Alvarez said. “I had no idea I was even a candidate to be drafted and I was a member of their organization for about two hours. There was a predetermined trade to send me to Detroit with Joe Randa and Matt Drews for Travis Fryman.”
The trade meant a lot to Alvarez because it was initiated by Randy Smith, the new general manager of the Tigers. Smith was with the Padres before he left for Detroit and promised to bring Alvarez with him at some point.
One year later, Alvarez was suiting up for the Tigers in his first big-league season.
“Randy has a special place in my heart for bringing me to Detroit and to the big leagues,” Alvarez said. “Now his son, Quinn, is our video director and does a great job as well.”
Dream come true
Alvarez played 58 games for the Tigers in 1998, 22 games in 1999 and 12 games between the Tigers and Padres in 2000 as he ferried between the big leagues and Triple-A.
“It was everything I thought it would be and more,” Alvarez said about his time in the big leagues. “I still remember getting my first hit in my first at-bat off Todd Stottlemyre and hitting a couple of homers the second day. I was a young hitter that first year, but I learned a lot and made adjustments.”
Alvarez had to adjust mentally as well as physically for the Tigers. He was asked to play the outfield at times after a lifetime of playing shortstop.
“I was stubborn because I was always an infielder and never needed to play the outfield,” Alvarez said. “I was scared to death the first few games playing the outfield in the big leagues, but our outfield coach, Juan Samuel, spent a lot of time working with me. I always tell our guys to shag fly balls during batting practice here so they are familiar with the outfield as well. It can only help their careers to be able to play several positions.”
Alvarez was released several times, and after playing three seasons in Double-A with three organizations from 2001 to 2003, he knew it was time to find another career.
“Nobody ever wants to stop playing baseball, but the end comes for everyone,” Alvarez said. “It was difficult, no doubt, but I had to figure out the next step.”
Getting into coaching
“It took a few years to figure out what I wanted to do and Frank Cruz took a huge chance on me at SC,” Alvarez said. “We are still close to this day. He was my hitting coach when I played at SC and brought me on board despite me never coaching before. I owe everything to him.”
Alvarez became an assistant coach at USC in 2010, which eventually led to building connections with the Tigers.
“I was an assistant coach at Stanford while Gabe was recruiting for USC, so we always saw each other out on the recruiting trail,” Garko said. “We also played against one another. I knew even back then he was a hard worker because he was always on the phone.”
One of Alvarez's recruits was Joe Navilhon, who pitched for the Trojans and is one of the longest-tenured pitchers in SeaWolves history.
“Playing for Gabe in college is very similar to playing for him now,” Navilhon said. “Although he worked more with the hitters, in the clubhouse he was a lot of fun. He is a player's coach and I love playing for him. I've played for a lot of great guys over the years and he is definitely one of them.”
Alvarez was at USC for a decade but a lot of the new coaches on the AJ Hinch staff knew about him. When Hinch took over as the manager of the Tigers, Alvarez was a target to bring aboard. Alvarez joined the Tigers as a consultant during the season last year before getting the SeaWolves job.
“SC is always going to be special to me, but I was ready to make the jump into pro ball," he said.
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Managing a winner
The SeaWolves haven't made the playoffs since 2013, but Alvarez's approach has them right in the thick of the Southwest Division race. Alvarez said from the first day of the season he wanted to bring Erie a winner and has shown his emotions on his sleeve over the past few weeks during the playoff race.
“I always tell the guys we all need each other in order to do well,” Alvarez said. “We are trying to develop guys, but we also need to pitch well and play good defense and run the bases and hit the ball. If we do things well, everything else takes care of itself.”
Alvarez has received some help from the new Tigers development staff as well. Carpenter was having a huge first half and might have gone to Triple-A Toledo right away in other years. This year, the Tigers kept him in Erie until the SeaWolves were eliminated from the first-half playoff race before moving him to Toledo.
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“We want to win and develop at the same time and made that a priority in the minor leagues,” Garko said. “If you lean too far one way or the other, you start to cheat your players, and really if the guys are doing the things we ask, development and winning will come anyway.”
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The SeaWolves have just two weeks left in the season, but Alvarez wouldn't mind sticking around two more weeks to compete for a championship.
“It's exciting to be around this group because they want to win,” Alvarez said. “Obviously, they want to develop and move up as well, but they work hard and do the right things to win ballgames as well.”
Contact Tom Reisenweber at treisenweber@timesnews.com or on Twitter @ETNReisenweber.
Up next
The SeaWolves play host to Altoona in their final home series of the regular season. Game time at UPMC Park is 6:05 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 4:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:35 p.m. Sunday. The SeaWolves finish the regular season with six games at Richmond Sept. 13-18. The Eastern League playoffs are scheduled to start Sept. 20.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie SeaWolves manager Gabe Alvarez uses player-first approach
