Yordan Alvarez’s 2026 season put him back in the center of the American League conversation, and the Players Choice Awards made that clear.
The Astros slugger came away with two honors: American League Outstanding Player and AL Comeback Player. He did not take home Player of the Year, but his season still stood out in a crowded field after Houston returned to the postseason following a missed playoff year in 2025.
Alvarez’s numbers tell the story of a hitter who controlled the league. He finished second in the AL in home runs with 42, RBIs with 106 and hits with 179. He also claimed the majors’ batting title with a .316 average, which was 10 points better than the next closest hitter.
Beyond that, he led all of baseball in OPS at 1.033, OBP at .432, SLG at .601 and walks with 109. Even though he finished one homer and seven RBIs behind Pete Alonso in those categories, the overall case was hard to miss: Alvarez was the most dangerous bat in the American League.
“I believe it was destined to happen, and I came into this year to show what I still have. The quality is still there," Alvarez said per Players Choice Awards.
For much of the year, he was even tracking toward a Triple Crown. A slump in August ended that chase and kept him from becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera in 2012. At one point, he was also in the mix for the major league Triple Crown, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Mickey Mantle in 1956.
The comeback award carried just as much weight. Alvarez missed 114 games the season before, dealing with a string of injuries in what had been the worst year of his career. At the beginning of 2025, the four-time All-Star played through what was first called a muscle strain before it was revealed to be a small right-hand fracture.
He went on the injured list in May and ended up missing 100 games because of that issue. When he finally returned in late August, right in the middle of the playoff push, he caught fire over a 19-game stretch.
Then another setback hit in mid-September, when he slipped awkwardly on home plate while scoring and suffered a left ankle sprain. That ended his season with 11 games left.
After all of that, Alvarez answered with the best season of his career in 2026, and he reached 40 home runs for the first time.
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