Did you forget how good this guy is?
Yordan Alvarez has twenty home runs in 60 games. A 1.050 OPS. An OPS+ of 192, meaning Yordan Alvarez has been 92 percent better than the average American League hitter this season. Injuries stole 2025 from him. But he’s reminding people that he’s one of the best pure hitters in the game.
Insane numbers: For context, a 150 OPS+ is an All-Star season. A 170 is MVP territory. Alvarez is at 192 through nearly two months of baseball, with 20 home runs, 39 RBI, and a .301 average. He just became the fifth player in Astros history to homer in multiple consecutive games — joining Jose Altuve, Richard Hidalgo, Moises Alou, and Doug Rader. The consistency is what stands out: 39 walks alongside 48 strikeouts, a patient approach that makes the power even harder to contain.
Houston has problems: Houston is 27-34. Fourth place in the AL West, four and a half games back. In a season where their best player is having one of the better offensive years in recent memory, the Astros are a losing team. Jeremy Peña returned from injury and homered. Jose Altuve is still in the lineup but at a different stage of his career. The pieces around Alvarez are good but not great, and the pitching has been inconsistent. Great players can make average teams competitive. They don't always make them good.
Taking it personally: The Astros went 7-3 in their last 10 games heading into June. There's still time. The AL West is unsettled enough — Seattle at 31-29, Oakland and Texas both at 28-31 — that a run in June and July could put Houston right back in it. And if Alvarez stays anywhere near this level, that run is entirely plausible. The MVP-caliber season that Alvarez is having deserves meaningful fall baseball.
The Hot Corner
In case you missed it, PCA hit a ball right at the fans calling him overrated.
Rosey finds out how well Lawrence Butler and Tyler Soderstrom know their teammates.
It’s Wacky ABS over in the Warehouse.
Eric Sim can’t leave the batting cage until he hits 1 million feet.
