ANAHEIM, Calif. — With Aaron Judge on the injured list and Shohei Ohtani thriving in the other league, the door is open for a new contender to win the American League MVP award for the first time since the shortened 2020 season.
Is this finally Yordan Alvarez’s year to take home the honor?
“It’s something I think every player wants, but right now I’m not thinking about that,” Alvarez told me through his interpreter earlier this week in Anaheim. “I’m not that type of player, to have that kind of pressure that I have to win that award.”
It’s not that the Houston Astros slugger can’t handle it, to be clear.
This is the same player who catalyzed Houston’s 2022 championship run with a walk-off home run off Seattle Mariners left-hander Robbie Ray in Game 1 of the American League Division Series and cemented it with a go-ahead blast off Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Jose Alvarado in Game 6 of the World Series. Alvarez has consistently produced in pressure-packed moments on baseball’s biggest stage, slashing .314/.417/.628 with 11 home runs over his last four postseasons.
Yordan Alvarez rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run off Phillies lefty Jose Alvarado in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the 2022 World Series. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
It just isn’t his modus operandi to try to garner individual attention, even amid what might end up the best offensive season of his eight-year career, especially while trying to lift a fourth-place Astros team that’s searching for its way.
But as much as Alvarez deflects when asked about it, those around him know what winning MVP would mean to him.
“I think it would be a huge deal for us as an organization and as his manager, and I think his teammates [would] be ecstatic about it, but Yordan will never talk about that,” Astros manager Joe Espada told me. “He’ll never admit that he would love to do that. I know deep inside he would love to do that, and we all know he’s that good, but he’s a humble man.”
According to Alvarez’s teammate Christian Walker, that humble nature shouldn’t be misconstrued as a lack of competitiveness or drive.
There’s a serenity to Alvarez when he steps to the plate, but it’s like a lion stalking his prey before pouncing.
“He’s quiet, he’s calculated, but do not confuse that with lack of caring,” Walker told me. “This guy wants to win, and he wants to dominate this league, and I think he’s in a position to do both of those things.”
Alvarez describes himself as “very competitive” and even “kind of stubborn.” He said those attributes have helped him thrive at the plate and keep a positive mentality, no matter how he’s feeling physically or how much time he might have missed due to injury.
From 2020 through 2025, Alvarez played in only 590 of the Astros’ 870 games as knee, hand, oblique and ankle injuries sidelined him at different points. But he has still hit at least 20% better than league average every season of his career, and since entering the league in 2019, his 165 wRC+ — 65% better than league average — is the second-highest mark in MLB behind only Judge (183).
“I’m hard on myself,” Alvarez said. “I have high standards. Even if I don’t meet those high standards, I feel like the numbers are still going to be good.”
In August 2020, Alvarez underwent surgery on both of his knees. A year later, he recorded the highest batting average in ALCS history (.522) and outhit the entire Boston Red Sox lineup over the final two games of the series to send Houston to the World Series. The Astros lost in six games that year but won in six the next, thanks largely to Alvarez’s 2022 postseason heroics against the Phillies.
That season, Alvarez had an OPS over 1.000 and finished third in MVP voting behind Judge and Ohtani. It was the closest he has come to winning the award, due to both the brilliance of Ohtani and Judge over the ensuing years and the injuries that have prevented the Astros slugger from challenging for the honor.
Four years later, though, a path has opened up for Alvarez, who is once again bouncing back from an injury-shortened season. He leads all of MLB in OPS, slugging and total bases. Over the past 58 years, only one player — Miguel Cabrera in 2012 — has won a triple crown. Alvarez, who ranks first in the AL in home runs, second in batting average and tied for third in RBIs, could challenge for it, though he thinks it’s too early to have that discussion.
His ability to read pitchers and not fall victim to their plan of attack, he believes, is paramount to his success.
“Every year, the league is harder on what they try to do with you,” Alvarez said through his interpreter. “Knowing how to adjust is part of it. I’ve been able to, thankfully, do it.”
Unfortunately for Alvarez and his MVP case, his team is 31-39. But in the dismal American League, the Astros are still only four games out of a wild-card spot. Plus, Alvarez’s biggest competition right now for MLB’s top individual honor is playing for an even worse Kansas City Royals club (28-41).
Bobby Witt Jr. leads the AL in WAR, teaming his .799 OPS with 24 steals and exceptional defense at shortstop. Alvarez can’t help his cause similarly with his legs or his defense, but his offense is so exceptional that it might not matter. He leads Witt, and nearly every AL player, in every major hitting category.
There are no obvious blemishes in Alvarez’s offensive package. He’s hitting .328 against fastballs and .326 against off-speed pitches, and he’s slugging .658 against breaking balls. He has an OPS over 1.000 against both righties (1.068) and lefties (1.057). He ranks in the top 10 among all qualified hitters in barrel rate and hard-hit rate, and he doesn’t sell out to access his power. Alvarez has the highest walk rate of his career (15.3%) this year, nearly as many walks (46) as strikeouts (53), and one of the 40 lowest whiff rates among all qualified hitters.
“I think the reason he’s in a category of his own is the consistency to hit everything hard,” said Walker, who has hit behind Alvarez all month. “You look at the big production guys, they tend to be 30 or 40 homer [hitters] but bring a lot of strikeouts with that. Their averages tend to be a little bit lower. This guy, when he’s not hitting homers, he’s hitting 112-mph doubles in the gap. It’s so impressive, the consistency. For me, that’s what stands out the most, is his ability to compete.”
Christian Walker (left) is most impressed by Alvarez’s consistency as a hitter, not just his prodigious power. (Photo by Houston Astros/Getty Images)
He’s also one of the most clutch hitters in the sport. Alvarez has demonstrated that skill in postseasons past, and he’s doing so this year with an OPS over 1.100 with runners in scoring position. It’s in those moments, Walker told me, when he sees Alvarez’s quiet competitiveness manifest.
“It’s hard to quantify, because he doesn’t have big reactions after at-bats,” Walker said. “It’s not a show of emotion, but you can feel it. You can feel it when he comes through in a big moment. He hits a three-run homer to give us the lead and hits home and comes back in the dugout, and you can just see it in his face.”
This year, Alvarez is accessing more of his pull-side power, allowing him to turn his barreled baseballs into home runs, but he’s still spraying singles all over the field. When fellow Astros left-handed hitter Joey Loperfido was in the minor leagues, and even before he got drafted by Houston, he liked to watch Alvarez’s swing because he admired how the slugger used the opposite field.
“Just how powerful he is to left-center, how he’s able to stay on some pitches, especially left-on-left, and go the other way … one of the best to ever do it,” Loperfido told me.
This season is arguably Alvarez’s best, but the 28-year-old is not yet satisfied.
“I think I can be better,” he said.
In what way?
“Everything.”
