The 2024 season came to a painful end both metaphorically and literally for Yordan Alvarez and the Astros, as the star slugger was hampered by a right knee sprain in the final week of regular-season action. Alvarez missed Houston’s last six games of the schedule but was able to return for the team’s brief playoff run as a designated hitter, going 2-for-7 with a double and a walk in the Tigers’ two-game sweep of the Astros during the Wild Card Series.
The knee sprain was a little more serious than appeared at the time, as Alvarez told Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle through an interpreter that “there was a lot of damage” and “at the time of the injury, there was a lot of doubts” about whether or not a surgical procedure would be required.
“But the last three or four weeks, it’s been feeling great, so everything is good to go….Apparently, it wasn’t enough damage to have surgery, [because] the body’s been recovering good and I feel good to go,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez’s mention of that 3-4 week timeline is somewhat eyebrow-raising, as it would somewhat indicate that surgery remained on the table until pretty recently. However, Alvarez declared himself ready for the start of Spring Training, and said he didn’t expect to have any limitations on his ability to play in left field. “I’ve been running, training, and I haven’t had any setbacks, and it’s good,” Alvarez said.
This isn’t the first time knee problems have hampered Alvarez, since arthroscopic surgeries on both knees limited Alvarez to only two games during the 2020 campaign. Alvarez has mostly been utilized as a DH during his career, but he has made 190 appearances as a left fielder over the last four years, giving the Astros a bit of extra flexibility in juggling their lineups.
A change to even this limited outfield usage could be coming, since manager Joe Espada told Kawahara and other reporters during the Winter Meetings that “I would like to kind of cut back on the amount of reps that [Alvarez] gets in left field.” While this isn’t a huge surprise given Alvarez’s most recent knee issue and his subpar defense, it is noteworthy considering the Astros’ lack of outfield depth. With former right Kyle Tucker now traded to the Cubs, Houston’s Opening Day starting outfield looks like some combination of Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Taylor Trammell, and utilityman Mauricio Dubon, with Shay Whitcomb as further depth and top prospect Jacob Melton expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2025.
It isn’t the most inspiring outfield mix on paper, which is why the Astros were linked to such free agents and trade targets as Jurickson Profar, Cody Bellinger, and Alex Verdugo at various points this offseason. Verdugo remains unsigned, and he would fulfill the Astros’ particular stated goal of adding a left-handed hitter to their predominantly right-handed lineup. Beyond external additions, however, Houston is also at least considering a more creative answer of moving Jose Altuve to left field, if Alex Bregman is re-signed to play third base and Isaac Paredes is moved into Altuve’s old second base spot.
Christian Walker will help some of the offensive void left by Walker’s departure, but if Bregman also heads elsewhere, a healthy and productive Alvarez will be more critical than ever to Houston’s lineup. Since Alvarez made his MLB debut in 2019, his 166 wRC+ is second only to Aaron Judge (180) among all big league hitters, with Alvarez hitting .298/.390/.583 with 164 home runs over his 2688 career plate appearances. The slugger has also hit .294/.393/.551 with 12 homers across 252 career PA in the postseason, including ALCS MVP honors in 2021.