September 16: Espada said today that Alvarez has a “pretty significant” injury (via Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle). The manager added that Alvarez would be “out for a while” but would not say whether he’ll be placed on the injured list or provide any further specifics on the timeline.
September 15: The Astros are sending Yordan Alvarez for an MRI on his left ankle, manager Joe Espada said postgame (via Space City’s Julia Morales). Houston’s star slugger gingerly exited tonight’s win over Texas in the first inning after hurting his ankle scoring a run. The club announced a few innings later that he was diagnosed with an ankle sprain. Chandler Rome of The Athletic observed that Alvarez was on crutches and in a walking boot in the clubhouse after the game.
Alvarez missed the bulk of the season with a small fracture in his right hand. He was out between the start of May and the final week of August. The three-time All-Star had started the year slowly but has raked since his return from the injured list. He’s hitting .369 with a trio of home runs in 18 games over the past three weeks. Alvarez has been in vintage form and is back as one of the team’s lineup anchors as they vie for a playoff spot.
The Astros have used Alvarez more frequently than they wanted in left field. That gave Jose Altuve more at-bats at designated hitter, though he’s been back at second base for the past few games. Victor Caratini stepped in at DH tonight. Alvarez’s exit pushed Jesús Sánchez from right to left field. Rookie Zach Cole came off the bench to play right field. Cole picked up a pair of hits and his second MLB home run in his first four games.
Cole would probably see an uptick in playing time in the corner outfield if Alvarez requires another injured list stint. Altuve could also see mostly everyday DH work with Mauricio Dubón stepping in as a defensive upgrade at second base.
Snake bit
Did they play the Diamondbacks?
Please don’t touch my fruit.
Dude just came off the IL and was looking like his normal self, that sucks Astros fans.
18 games – .369/.455/.569
shame
Darn
why does he keep getting hurt? is he stupid?
This injury was bad luck. His foot skidded across home plate as he touched it. Very strange.
I dunno, read some chatter on reddit that you never want to hit the plate squarely like that when wearing cleats because you will slide.
It’s true that home plate (and the rubber) can be a little slick under cleats. I’ve seen a few slips and skids but no injuries.
Chien-Ming Wang in 2008, no?
Wang was injured rounding third. It had nothing to do with home plate.
No but you certainly are
He clearly doesn’t know how to put one foot in front of the other, especially when his legs are moving at a higher rate of speed.
He tried to slide on home plate when he should have slid into it.
You decide.
Yordan keeps stealing Jobu’s rum…
He’s perhaps entering the injury-prone phase of his career.
Entering?
An injured Astros star …..
I can hardly believe it :-0
It would probably be best for the Astros to try to trade Walker this winter and ask Alvarez to learn 1B. That would open the DH spot for Altuve and keep Yordan out of LF. They would need to find a regular 2B, but that should be cheaper than what they’re paying Walker.
The Astros are better off keeping Walker. He remains above league average defensively. They’ll need to eat salary or attach a prospect to trade him. Alvarez isn’t athletic enough to play 1B.
Walker has been worth -6 DRS this season. There is no decision on whether or not to trade him to be made. They’re stuck with him.
+3 OAA
Outs Above average is really just a range only measurement, which doesn’t make any positional adjustments. Even then, he had +13 OAA in 2024 meaning both alternate measures are showing a defensive decline.
Cant imagine anyone trading for Walker, you’d think the Astros would’ve learned their lesson after the Abreu disaster. Aging 1B are having a hard time even getting FA offers, no one would give a 35 y/o Walker coming off a near replacement level season 1/20, let alone 2/40.
If the Stros are gonna have to eat 75% of his deal to get nothing back, why trade him? On top of that, Yordan cant stay healthy at DH, best to have alot of depth with all the old, injury prone guys they got.
What might have been
Astros will still find a way to win the division they can win with triple A players
That’s got us to this point now. We have an entire pitching staff out with injuries, not to mention all the position players that also equal basically playing AAA including pitcher and catcher at so many games this year. Im actually a little surprised we have managed to hang in the divisional race as long as we have. I hope he isn’t out for long, but history does tell us how the FO likes to say one thing when it’s completely different than the doctors say. Last year Kyle Tucker had a sprang ankle for a few months. Then it came out he had a broke foot. I hope this isn’t one of those FO feel good comments and he really is OK and back in a few days.
Correa and Altuve will at least boost the lineup to a WC berth. They have that “it” factor under pressure so many empty calorie stat accumulators don’t. Beyond that, looks like a long shot bet on Brown/Valdez being lights out to go on their usual deep postseason run.
Tough blow
That’s really unfortunate. I hate seeing a team lose one of their stars so close to the end of the season and going into the playoffs.That sucks.
To his credit, Brittle Alvarez had played in several straight games, so he was due another month off.
Age is starting to catch up with the Astros. Let’s hope they don’t have the same thing happen to them as happened to the Phillies.
In all seriousness, if he truly is dealing with a significant ankle sprain it’s probably gonna be about 2 weeks before he can go. I’ve rolled my ankle playing street hockey and it ballooned. Speedy recovery to him.
Yordan is 28.
Thank you for the correction. I honestly didn’t know and should have looked that up.
this is the Astros so pretty significant ankle sprain likely means dislocated ankle.
The poor Asstros just don’t deserve this..
He is soft, that’s the issue. Buxton part 2
i know the josh fields trade was bad in retrospect but is this kid ever going to be healthy?