Alvarez attracting attention with his devastating power
It was not the easiest day to stand out inside Minute Maid Park.
Lance Berkman stood behind the batting cage. Craig Biggio was in clear view. Super agent Scott Boras chatted at length with the Astros’ Jose Altuve and Gerrit Cole, while Justin Verlander waited for another start for the best team in baseball.
Add Jeff Luhnow discussing recent first-round pick Korey Lee, who took batting practice with the
Astros’ biggest names. Look to the left of the cage and see 2018 National League MVP Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Milwaukee general manager David Stearns, who helped build the Astros’ first World Series winner.
If you were playing your third MLB game, Wednesday was not the day to draw stadium-wide attention.
Unless you’re 6-5 and 225 pounds, just became the first Astro to homer in your initial two big league contests, and can make an injured George Springer smile wide by cranking a BP home run 400-plus feet.
I would normally type: Astros fans, meet Yordan Alvarez.
But that’s old news. You’ve been waiting for Alvarez for months, and fans were screaming for more long balls from the 21-year-old rookie more than two hours before Verlander’s first pitch.
“I’m super proud to be here and to be part of one of the best teams in baseball and to have a chance to win,” said Alvarez, through a team interpreter. “I’m very happy to be here, very content.”
Third base coach Gary Pettis, Springer and a collection of Astros watched Alvarez destroy another baseball. Two fans called the shot as soon as it left his bat. Fan 1: “Gone.” Fan 2: “Home run!” Before Alvarez’s MLB debut Sunday, the Astros’ first-half story was dominated by all the recent Class AAA names in A.J. Hinch’s daily lineups. Carlos Correa, Collin McHugh, Aledmys Díaz, Max Stassi, Altuve and Springer were out. Derek Fisher, Myles Straw, Garrett Stubbs, Jack Mayfield, Cionel Perez and Framber Valdez were in, with the Astros rolling off nightly wins and going 28-8 since May 3.
Alvarez’s promotion to The Show didn’t have the franchisechanging impact of Springer Day, Correa Day, Bregman Day or Verlander Day. But serious Round Rock hype (.343 batting average, 23 homers, 71 RBIs, 1.184 OPS in 56 AAA games) had been answered with awesome early MLB power.
Impossible to miss hammering inside the cage. Impossible to ignore when he starts 2-for-6 with two homers, four RBIs, three runs and two walks for the Astros.
“Just trying to stay humble and stay focused on my job,” Alvarez said. “I know that I am here in the big leagues. At the same time, I’m just trying to do my job and to do the best I can.”
The Astros’ interest in Alvarez dates to his young baseball days in Cuba. The franchise tried to sign him but lost out in the final hours of the bidding process. Alvarez became a Dodger as an international free agent. But the Astros eventually flipped 2012 Rule 5 pick Josh Fields for Alvarez at the 2016 non-waiver deadline — a trade period then seen as a quiet one for a disappointing team that fell short of the playoffs.
“He was in limbo, working on paperwork. … When we talked to the Dodgers about him, he had not yet played his first professional game,” Luhnow said. “In fact, he had not yet been paid his bonus. So we made sure as part of the agreement that they were going to pay him the bonus they owed him. I think it turned out that we paid him and got reimbursed.”
On a night Verlander had 12 strikeouts by the sixth inning and a career-high 15 by the seventh, Alvarez hit fifth for Hinch and was in the middle of a threerun fourth that erased a two-run Brewers lead. Alvarez finished 0-for-3 with three walks in the 6-3 loss that went 14 innings.
“It was pretty impressive how quickly (Alvarez) opened eyes in our organization,” Luhnow said. “Obviously, our scouts — Charlie Gonzalez, Oz Ocampo and others — that had seen him were enamored by him and really believed in him, which is why we almost signed him at the time. … But it really wasn’t until he got to spring training the next year and then A ball that we realized that now that he’s playing with kids his own age and actually kids older than him, he’s better than most players on the field, and that has continued all the way through.”
Astros first baseman Tyler White remembers Alvarez hitting a line drive in the minors on which a shortstop made a leap. The scorched ball ended up smacking off the scoreboard.
“He’s got incredible power,” White said.
Three walks in Alvarez’s initial 10 MLB plate appearances speak to an overall approach that is more than just all or nothing.
“I like where he’s at in his takes,” Hinch said. “Whether that’s timing, whether that’s balance, pitch recognition — all that goes into it. But there’s no panic in him. He doesn’t look out of posture. He doesn’t look like he’s rushed. There’s a real calmness to him when he’s in the batter’s box.”
Calm, pure power at 21. Impossible to miss on a day the Astros’ ballpark was overloaded with huge names.