TODAY: Alvarez is in today’s lineup as a DH, hitting fifth. In corresponding moves, southpaw Reymin Guduan has been optioned to Triple-A and Lance McCullers Jr. was shifted to the 60-day IL, as per multiple reporters.
SATURDAY: The Astros are set to promote top infield/outfield prospect Yordan Alvarez from Triple-A Round Rock in advance of Sunday’s game, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic reports. Alvarez isn’t on the Astros’ 40-man roster, which is full, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move to create a spot for him.
Alvarez, a soon-to-be 22-year-old from Cuba, joined the Astros in an August 2016 trade with the Dodgers for reliever Josh Fields. Since then, Alvarez has developed into one of baseball’s premier prospects. The lefty-swinging Alvarez has slashed a ridiculous .343/.443/.742 (175 wRC+) with a minor league-leading 23 home runs and 49 walks (including 11 intentional passes) against 50 strikeouts in 253 plate appearances at the Triple-A level this season.
MLB.com is among the outlets with a high opinion of Alvarez, ranking him as the game’s 23rd-best prospect while lauding his offensive upside. At the same time, MLB.com notes the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Alvarez won’t provide much (if any) defensive value. Alvarez has lined up at first base and left field in the minors, and he’s likely to divide his time between LF and designated hitter in his first taste of the majors, per Kaplan. The Astros are in excellent shape in left with Michael Brantley, though they haven’t gotten much production from primary DH Tyler White.
Despite White’s paltry output, the Astros’ offense entered Saturday with the majors’ sixth-most runs and its second-highest wRC+. They also boast the American League’s top record (44-22) and a nine-game lead in their division. However, injuries to Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa and Aledmys Diaz have taken a bite out of the Astros’ lineup of late, so Alvarez could help in that regard.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bout time lol. What more did he have to prove… Alvarez has been on a tearer since the season started. I couldn’t have those numbers on MLB the show ps4 game on rookie level LoL
So jealous of all the talent on this team and in their system. Just enjoy it as much as you can Astro’s fans!
As a Braves fan, I watch the Astros about as much as the Braves because if their talent and boradcasting team via MLB At-Bat.
Geoff Blum is the best! Even when they lose, I enjoy hearing him call the game.
Talk about drafting properly….put me at “yup I’m jealous too movement”
Alvarez was acquired via trade, cpd
Yeah, he was via trade but still requires scouting on him, which they were involved in trying to sign him out of Cuba.
Tanking pays off!
kiss the ring biiitch
He’ll be better than Joey Gallo and that’s what hurts your Little Ranger Butt.
knew this comment was coming
Nothing to do with tanking dumba$$. He was acquired via trade.
Tanking almost always pays off. The declining teams that hold onto their players, still decline. Harper with the Nats, Donaldson with the BJs, Machadoo with BA, plus a ton of those 2nd tier guys. Alvarez went for Fields. Tatis went for Shields.
As a RS fan, if they cannot compete at the trade deadline, I’d definitely trade everyone whose contract terminates this year. And for the right offer, I’d listen on the 2020 FAs like Betts & JBJ.
So does putting your outfielders deep in the 9th inning of a clinching world series game with 2 outs!!!! Ha ha ha! Watching a world series title slip away when a flyball hits the warning track! Hilarious!
Are you sure? Rookie is extremely easy
Yeah, this guy must be pretty bad.
Exactly, if you’re on Rookie or Beginner and have the offensive sliders maxed out, like I do you had better be putting up numbers that even Babe Ruth never could put up.
Great Scott!
This is heavy.
Well this is going to be horrifying to watch as a Dodger fan. But thats just baseball sometimes, it evens out. Like getting Muncy for nothing.
The Dodgers are the best team in baseball because of their superior scouting department, so they literally can afford to give away prospects at this point. Hard to be “horrified” when you’re in 1st with a strong farm.
We are about to see a LOT of ex-Dodgers prospects become stars, get used to it.
Probably easy to be horrified, though, when the team he’s going to (possibly) be a star for is the one who beat you in the World Series two seasons ago.
Not horrified at all about the status of the team/farm. Doesn’t mean you cant help but think “what if” with this player. Its not really about him being an ex Dodger turning into a star. If a guy they traded for Machado turns into a star so be it. But for Josh Fields basically won a WS game for the Astros which is the salt in the wound ( as someone below said”
Astros traded Josh Hader (plus others) for Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. Astros also have a strong scouting department and are in first… they get some wrong from time to time, but to not admit getting one wrong every once in a while is probably worse than making a regrettable trade in the first place. Josh Fields is an ok player (non-tendered or waived I believe?) but this trade is looking like a big win for the Astros right now… we will see how Yordan does, but if he’s a significant contributor over the next 6+ years, I would imagine “horrified” would be a correct adjective. That’s how Astros fans are, or should be, with Hader.
Eh. We won a WS ring after that trade. It’s not as horrifying as the Dodgers giving Yordan away for Fields.
Yea, but not because of Gomez or Fiers. That’s for damn sure… winning that WS makes it easier for sure. Would love to have Hader in the pen though!
Fiers had a lot to do with them getting there. He held it together during the middle of that year when pretty much the entire staff was hurt.
Come on dude, we won the division by 20 games and Fiers wasn’t on the postseason roster… non-tenderer the next season. You give him too much credit for a strong 5 starts in July… also, follow up on my previous comments, Franklin Perez, Daz Cameron and the guys we gave up for Brian McCann can do whatever in the future, but we don’t win the WS without JV or McCann. That’s a necessary trade that takes the sting of giving up (potential) future all stars.
Well put. Exactly the way I see it. Long, long time Astros fan.
Giving away yordan? We got fields for 3 seasons of an era at 2.5 he was a useful player so to say we got nothing in return is kinda short sided. Alvarez wouldnt have played on our roster we have muncy and bellinger not to mention a stacked outfield. Its nice to dream on but not all teams can roster all these players. Unless the nl gets a dh not sure where he would have a place on our squad.
Um what other ex dodgers are in the same boat as alvarez? Lmao both the players we traded for manny and darvish look to be busts lol.
A bit like Beeks being 5-0 with TB. The RS got what they wanted, and needed. If Beeks develops into a top BP guy, it doesn’t bother me at all.
Yah but the one thing the talented Dodgers can’t do is climax. 3rd year in a row they will be burning sofas in LA
That’s okay, Giants fan. It’s an odd year, so you can safely presume that you’ll be even worse than last year’s last place team. I guess go pound sand?
Didn’t the same outlets say that Pete Alonso can’t play a serviceable defense? If they can hit they’ll find a way.
Thing is, Smith is a better defender than Alonso, and he’s hitting like you say, but they aren’t finding a way for him to play 1B….
Can’t they just move McCullers to 60 day IL still?
I bet Yordan Alvarez becomes the full time DH. Tyler White is just too fat to know if he’s any good.!
Facts
“Despite White’s paltry output, the Astros’ offene entered Saturday with the majors’ sixth-most runs and its second-highest wRC+.”
I think Alvarez will definitely be able to help Houston’s offene.
Imagine the Astros if they hadn’t swung and missed with back to back number 1 picks… in 2013 if instead of Mark Appel, they picked Kris Bryant? Or 2014 instead of Brady Aikin they picked Conforto or Schwarber, or Nola?
Without drafting Aiken they don’t get Bregman.
Well fortunately they missed on Aiken(or unable to sign him) because they were awarded the number 2 pick the following year to select Bregman. The Appel pick sucks because he was such a highly regarded prospect coming out of Stanford and also spent much of his childhood growing up in Houston. It happens though
His magnitude of bust only happened one other time (#1 pick retiring before mlb debut)
Bregman is a better player than all those guys you mentioned… some real revisionist history with the Appel pick. He was supposed to be a sure fire TOR SP. He didn’t work out. We can move on.
You know a guy is doing good when his slugging percentage would make a solid OPS.
Hoping this kid can spark this team without Correa, Springer, Diaz, Altuve.
Wonder what Houston will do with Catching too. Will Stassi come back as back up or will it be Stubbs as well.
White not impressed with this season. Yes has had some hits but too heavy and taking what he did last year and thinking could do it this year.
I like the players of Straw, and Fisher and what they are doing. So will be hard what happens when the above return as well. Especially with those 2 contributing. But hope Alvarez can give us a boost.
Agree, I would prefer Straw, Stubbs and either Fisher or possibly Alvarez (TBD) to Kemp, White & Stassi. Love Kemp’s attitude but Straw is such a weapon, especially in tight games playing small ball with his speed. I know it is fantasy land, but if there is any way we can package the previous three with a few more prospects for Stroman, that would be awesome.
Nice
When will the DH be added to the NL?
Tired of half the teams working with such a clear advantage.
Hopefully never. The DH was a lousy thing in 1973 and it hasn’t changed.
I used to strongly agree with you, especially with taking part of the strategy away and dumbing down the game some. However, now that the Astros have been in the AL for a while, I do prefer the DH and not seeing pitchers try to hit instead of the interest we loose in watching Manager decisions.
You prefer it now, but you didn’t back then. That might make you wishy-washy and not enlightened.
Pitchers can hit. Some do it very well. Others aren’t as good, but they can be entertaining. I still have zero problems with pitchers hitting. Insisting the AL is better because of a one dimensional role for an (bc we all know, the best athletes do only one thing) just needs to suck it up and deal with the fact that NL ball works for NL fans.
It also might make him a person who had never watched much AL ball before who hated the DH because that’s what NL fans do who became enlightened once he actually paid attention to AL ball. I used to be one of those guys too. After many, many years of being an NL guy and absolutely hating the Astros move to the AL, I’ve changed my mind. AL ball is considerably more exciting.
The DH is not mandatory.
Yadda yadda,
Point is the DH DOES EXIST..
So it’s not like we’re arguing if it should..
Point we’re arguing is it’s beyond overdue that teams in MLB all have the same rules..
No one cares about what decision the managers make anyways.
We know they’re all overpaid putz’s anyways.
Nothing screams fun like watching a batter with a .121/.156/.162/.318 slash with a 43% K rate hit (pitchers collective batting line this year). Even better is when your pitcher gets pulled from a close game because it was his turn to hit, even if he was able to go another inning on the mound. I guess maybe the pitcher wouldn’t be in that situation to stay in the game if every single NL team didn’t have an automatic out at the bottom of their lineup. You should check out my 9 year old son’s little league games. They’re full of ineptitude at the plate. You’ll love it.
What advantage? The AL sucks and is boring.
Oh, you mean the advantage of having pitchers who can hit? Yeah, well, AL can work on that.
How is having a pitcher hit exciting? Or watching someone lay down a sacrifice bunt?
As far as pitcher who can hit, the collective batting lines.
AL: .098/.124/.098 in 114 PA (49.1% K rate)
NL: .122/.157/.165 in 1990 PA (42.8% K rate)
2018
AL: .103/.123/.123 in 330 PA
NL: .116/.146/.150 in 4805 PA
2017
AL: .116/.152/.141 in 357 PA
NL: .126/.158/.164 in 4920 PA
I really don’t see where the NL pitchers are noticeably better.
Now the Astros may never lose another game. This guy’s a beast.
What’s crazy is that this deal didn’t even get its own story on this site. Now he’s one of the leagues top prospects. Can’t fault the Dodgers too much here.
Good for Yordan! But what’s it gonna take for Tucker to get promoted? When will White lose his spot?
HR in his 2nd AB!!!!