Houston Astros Boss Planning to Keep All-Star Slugger Fresh This Season

Yordan Alvarez is one of baseball’s top hitters. He’s coming off his third straight All-Star season and played in a career-high 147 games.

Those 147 games are key for the Houston Astros. In the season prior he only played 114, due to injuries. In 2022 he played in 135 games and then 144 in 2021, which was his first full season.

Keeping Alvarez on the field is critical, according to manager Joe Espada. It’s why he told MLB.com that he’s considering way to manage Alvarez’s reps in the field in 2025.

“He never says no, but I need to be more mindful of the more he plays out there, the more I’m asking of him, and I need to try to keep him healthy,” he said.

Alvarez’s lifetime slash line of .298/.390/.583/.973 demands that he be kept in the lineup. His 162-game averages of 42 home runs and 120 RBI make him one of the game’s most serious power threats.

Last season he slashed .308/.392/.567/.959 with 35 home runs and 86 RBI. With the injuries in 2022, he actually posted similar numbers — .293/.407/.583/.990 with 31 home runs and 97 RBI.

So, how can Espada keep him in the lineup? Well, Alvarez is listed as an outfielder and a designated hitter. Espada is planning to trim the left-handed hitting Alvarez’s time in the field.

“I would like to kind of cut back on the amount of reps that he gets in left field,” Espada said. “So hopefully we could get that done and not ask Yordan to play that many innings in left.”

Alvarez has already played twice as many games at designated hitter (418) than he has in the outfield (200) for his career. Last year he played 94 games at DH and 53 in the outfield. That is the widest split since 2021, when he spent 98 games at DH and 41 games in the outfield.

But it isn’t as simple as slipping Alvarez at DH and letting it be. The Astros are in the midst of trying to find a replacement for Kyle Tucker in right field after trading him earlier this offseason.

Houston has Jake Meyers, Chas McCormick, Mauricio Dubón, Taylor Trammell and Zach Dezenzo on the depth chart in the outfield, in addition to Alvarez.

Right now, field could land in McCormick’s domain, though Trammell can play both corner outfield spots. The question is whether any of the replacements can approach Tucker’s prodigious production offensively.

That won’t be a problem with Alvarez, who has been consistent his entire career. The Astros just have to keep him healthy.