Yordan Alvarez is back and looking better than ever.
In what was looking like a potentially lost year, Alvarez returned on Aug. 26 after missing nearly four months due to a hand injury. Since returning, Alvarez has a .386/.471/.596 slash line in 68 plate appearances with three home runs, 10 walks and eight strikeouts. Any thoughts about a diminished -- or perhaps not fully healthy -- version of Alvarez coming back for Houston have vanished.
Perhaps, that’s not a surprise. After all, this is a career .297/.389/.573 hitter with 170 home runs in 674 career games. Since debuting in 2019, his career 163 OPS+ only trails Aaron Judge’s 185 clip among hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances. Alvarez’s combination of prodigious power, excellent bat to ball skills and elite plate discipli