Astros prospect Yordan Alvarez reaches base twice in Futures Game.
Alvarez singles, walks for Team World but is more interested in finishing climb to majors
WASHINGTON — He strode to the back of an overcrowded clubhouse with no emotion. Some teammates showed off their Team World jerseys. Others hoisted their iPhones to capture the chaotic scene or the new gear inside their lockers.
Yordan Alvarez needed none of it. He spent most of his afternoon watching the World Cup final, away from the hoopla and cameras at Nationals Park, before trudging to his locker and grabbing his bats.
“Most people know me and classify me for my bat,” Alvarez said through a translator. “And I’m working hard to continue that.”
Arriving at a Futures Game and receiving its spoils is nothing new for Alvarez. The Astros’ No. 3 overall prospect was the only member of Team World to make a return trip to baseball’s showcase of its top talent. Indians catcher Francisco Mejia was selected for a second year but did not participate after he was promoted to the major league club.
There was little surprise accompanying Alvarez’s invitation. His agent phoned him a couple of days earlier with some vague questions.
“So I kind of figured something was in the works,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez’s ascent warrants it. In less than two full seasons, he has vaulted from an intriguing prospect in a loaded farm system to an almost untouchable asset who is on the cusp of a major league call-up.
10-6 win for Team USA
He is a hulking 21-year-old Cuban, placing 230 pounds on a 6-5 frame with a fast lefthanded swing that carries to all fields. Alvarez’s only hit during Team USA’s 10-6 win over Team World was a fifth-inning single, one he poked the other way after falling behind in the count 3-0.
Alvarez reached twice in four plate appearances. He coaxed a fourth-inning walk against Reds righthander Hunter Greene, who dazzled the sparse Nationals Park crowd with 19 fastballs thrown harder than 100 mph. Greene’s hardest fastball was 103.1 mph. Each of the four fastballs he threw Alvarez eclipsed 100.
Another Reds prospect, Taylor Trammell, was chosen as the game’s MVP thanks to a home run and a triple for Team USA.
Kyle Tucker’s recent promotion leaves Alvarez as the Astros’ highest-ranked position player still in the minor leagues. Baseball America pegs him the game’s No. 34 overall prospect in its most recent tabulations.
Acquired from the Dodgers in 2016 for Josh Fields, Alvarez raced through the Midwest and Carolina leagues last season — his first with the Astros — with a .304/.371/.409 slash line.
Alvarez began the season with Class AA Corpus Christi. He played only 43 games, navigated a hand injury in May after colliding with a wall, and crushed his way to a promotion to Class AAA Fresno nine days ago.
“The manager told me after one game that the next morning I’d be flying out,” Alvarez said with a grin. “It’s very exciting, I figured that could be a possibility, but nonetheless it took me off-guard. It was great news, and it was very exciting.”
Nineteen Class AAA at-bats have produced only two hits. One was an opposite-field home run Thursday.
Left fielder for now
Even though he played first base throughout the Futures Game, Alvarez has transitioned primarily to left field. The Astros have just a .696 OPS from their left fielders, meager production that, in the short term, Tucker’s recent promotion has not solved.
And Alvarez waits. “I understand the quality of the team,” Alvarez said. “My job is to work hard and focus on what I’m doing, and that’s what I’m doing.”