He slugger Cuban Astros, Yordan Alvarez, was placed this Friday on the disabled list due to discomfort in the right oblique. The man from Las Tunas had to leave the team in Cleveland and return to Houston for a more exhaustive evaluation that will determine if he will only be out for ten days or if he will miss more games.
Normally it would be just another piece of news, but nothing worries Cuban fans more than Álvarez’s health, knowing that injuries could change the fate of his career. If the Astros slugger stays in shape and ailments free, he has every chance to become the best Cuban hitter in history; but if annoyances hit you regularly, the idea may go off the cliff.
Yordan is not yet 26 years old and already has 115 home runs and 338 RBIs in the majors. If we look at history, the only Cuban who at that age or younger achieved similar numbers was José Canseco (183 homers and 574 RBIs). Other great stars born on the island such as Rafael Palmeiro (72-330), Tany Pérez (68-306) or Tony Oliva (46-148) are far from the performance of the man from Las Tunas at that age.
Among all players in MLB history, Álvarez is the fifth with the most home runs in his first 425 games, the eleventh with the most extra-base hits (220) and the sixteenth with the most RBIs. I mean, there’s no question that if he keeps up a similar pace for several years he could be a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate.
This year, the man from Las Tunas is going for 17 home runs, second in the American League after Aaron Judge (19), and leads the Majors in RBIs (55). Plus, he’s third in MLB in slugging (.589) and OPS (.977), star numbers with great significance for the Astros, who this season have found a tough competitor (Texas Rangers) in the West of the young circuit.
The big question, I insist, is his health. Between 2020 and 2022, Yordan missed about 27% of the Astros’ games (102 of 384); most of them due to two knee operations in the campaign shortened by the pandemic. It’s already a significant amount for a not-so-great span of time, which can affect his career totals and compromise the magnitude of his legacy.
Quick of the week
* In the first 329 games of his career, Adolis García from Ciego de Avila only managed one game of at least 4 hits, on July 24, 2022 in a duel between Texas and Oakland. This season, on the other hand, the Rangers outfielder has achieved 3 games out of 4 hits, the last of which was last Tuesday against the Cardinals, the team that signed him and made his MLB debut five years ago. Adolis has taken a leap in quality this year. In his first 60 games he has a .328 on-base average, more than 30 points above his all-time average. The key for him is that he’s being much more selective, as evidenced by his declining swing rate against pitches outside the zone (35.2% in his career, 28.8% in 2023). Soon we will analyze in depth this improvement of Adolis.
* Since the beginning of June, the Cuban Jose Dariel Abreu He has had at least one hit in 7 of the 8 games he’s played, including a home run in the marathon 14-inning game between Cleveland and Houston on Friday. However, he also has at least one strikeout in the last 7 games, his longest streak in an Astros jersey. So far, Abreu has been struck out in 23.5% of his plate appearances, the highest rate of his career. Although the star from Cienfuegos has shown slight signs of improvement, he still has a lot of work ahead of him to recover the most lethal version of him.
* On Wednesday, June 7, in the bottom of the ninth inning of the duel between the Rays and the Twins at Tropicana Field in Tampa, Randy Arozarena from Pinar del Río hooked a splitter 98.3 miles from reliever Jhoan Durán and decided the game with a home run to right field. According to data from Francys Romero, the Rays patrolman is the third Cuban with a walk-off HR before a throw of 98+ miles. Before, only Yadiel Hernández from Matanzas had done it (before a sinker of 99.7 miles by Manuel Rodríguez in 2021) and Jorge Soler (before a 99.1-mile fastball by Hunter Harvey 3 weeks ago). By the way, this week Luis Robert also achieved a walk off with a single to left to give the White Sox the victory over the Marlins.
* Yu Darvish scored this Friday the victory over Colorado and became the second Japanese pitcher with 100 major league wins. Despite the fact that many Japanese shooters have come to MLB as great pitching promises, not so many have managed to succeed. Darvish is one of the exceptions to the rule. The right-hander from the San Diego Padres needed 11 seasons and 254 starts to reach one hundred wins, a figure that only Hideo Nomo (123) had achieved among Japanese pitchers. Darvish (36 years old) also has 1,862 strikeouts and is on his way to breaking the record for Japan, also held by Nomo, who retired 1,918 batters via strikes. If things don’t go wrong, Darvish could be the first Japanese with 2,000 strikers in the Major Leagues.
* The Dominican Esteury Ruiz (Oakland Athletics) reached 30 stolen bases this Friday, the absolute leader of the season. This is the fourth best mark in the first 63 games of a season from 2010 to date, behind only Dee Gordon (36 in 2014), Billy Hamilton (36 in 2015) and Jacoby Ellsbury (31 in 2013). In the history of the Athletics, the man with the most scams in the first 65 games of a campaign could not be other than Rickey Henderson, MLB’s historical leader in this department. Henderson stole 64 bases in the opening 65 games in 1982 and 36 in 1981. The third best record for the franchise is shared by Cuban Bert Campaneris (33 in 1969) and Eddie Collins (33 in 1910).
* We already have more than 60 games in the season and Venezuelan Luis Arraez is still hitting .400. The Marlins’ “La Regadera” leads the National League in hits (88) and MLB in on-base average (.449). The last batting champion with a batting average over .400 was Ted Williams (.406) 82 years ago, in 1941. In the last 75 years, only 4 men had hit over .400 in the first 65 games of a season: John Olerud (.405 in 1993), Larry Walker (.409 in 1997), Tony Fernández (.403 in 1997) and Chipper Jones (.420 in 2008). None of them finished those seasons above .400. Will Luis Arraez be able to change the course of history?
* The rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox lived its first episode of 2023 this Friday. Boston took the victory in the Bronx, supported by a home run by Dominican Rafael Devers, who reached 20 homers in the classic duel of the American League East . Going through the records, the only Boston player with that many homers against the Yankees at 26 years, 229 days (Devers’s exact age) is Ted Williams. In other words, if we talk about home run production, the current Red Sox third baseman is emulating one of the greatest legends in the game.
