Yordan Álvarez keeps stacking up numbers that have the Astros and the rest of baseball paying attention.
On Saturday at Citi Field, he launched his 37th homer of the season and drove in his 93rd run, even though Houston fell 6-2 to the New York Mets. The blast matched the top home run total of his career, first set in 2022 when he went deep 37 times at age 25. With the Astros sitting at 68-68 and 26 games left, there’s still enough runway for Álvarez to set a new personal best.
The bigger story, though, is the way he’s doing it. His run at an MVP push and a Triple Crown chase has been one of the most compelling threads in the sport this year, but the underlying production is what makes this season stand out. In the Statcast era, from 2015 to now, there hasn’t been a season like this one from Álvarez.
What makes it so unusual is the balance. Across pitch groups, his numbers show a hitter who is producing elite contact, elite expected power and very little swing-and-miss.
No hitter has posted combined marks equal to or better than Álvarez in xBA, xSLG and Whiff%. Ronald Acuña Jr. is the only player who has reached at least two of those standards, and even his 2023 xSLG against fastballs finished below .700 at .647.
The list of players who have met the requirements against at least one or two pitch groups does not include anyone from this season. Most of them were left-handed hitters, with Ozzie Albies among them even though he is a switch-hitter. Álvarez’s work against each pitch group has been overwhelming, especially when you put together the quality of contact, the expected damage and the low chase-and-miss rates.
That’s what separates him. He looks like a hitter built from two different molds at once: a sharp batting eye and a swing that can adjust instantly to velocity or movement.
Even if the final month brings a dip, the foundation of the season is already there in the numbers. And the next milestone feels close.
Álvarez is almost certain to break his personal home run record, and it could happen as soon as Sunday in New York. In 2022, when he reached 37 homers despite spending time on the injured list, he got there in 135 games and 27 fewer plate appearances than he has used this year.
He has appeared in 134 games this season.
For Houston, it’s another reminder of what Álvarez can do when he’s healthy: turn every trip to the plate into something that can light up the ballpark.
In Other News...
Astros GM Search Suddenly Centers On One Huge Offseason Decision
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A.J. Hinch, the former Astros manager now running the Tigers, had his name floated in the mix, but reports say he is not interested in leaving Detroit for the GM chair. So Houston keeps moving down a list that could lead into some familiar front-office pipelines, with candidates from the Brewers, Rays, or Guardians organizations all possible fits as the Astros try to find the right voice for a pivotal offseason. [Read more 🡒]
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Astros Just Got A Much Tougher Mets Test Tonight
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For the Astros, the timing matters. Facing a Mets club that already had plenty of ways to pressure a pitching staff, Houston now has to deal with one of the sports most dangerous hitters returning to the heart of the order. New York made room for Soto by optioning infielder Eric Wagaman to Triple-A Syracuse, a move that underscores how quickly the matchup shifted before first pitch. [Read more 🡒]