Yordan Alvarez
At the time, it may have seemed like the Astros did not make a major move during the trade deadline last season. However, the Astros may have acquired their first baseman of the future when they traded right-handed reliever Josh Fields to the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 1st, 2016. Since entering the Astros organization, first baseman Yordan Alvarez has blown away scouts and fans alike with the amount of power in his bat as well as his offensive ceiling.
Alvarez started his professional career at Single-A Quad Cities and tore the cover off of the ball. He hit .360 with a .468 on-base percentage and a .658 slugging percentage in 32 games. He had 15 extra base hits, including nine home runs, scored himself 26 times and drove in 33 RBIs.
Since his call up to Single-A (Adv) Buies Creek on June 23rd, Alvarez’s offensive production came back down to earth a bit. In 17 games, the 20-year-old has a .230 batting average with only a .361 slugging percentage. However, he has shown patience at the plate during this stop. Despite decreasing his walk percentage, his strikeout percentage has decreased to 17.3 percent.
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Even though it may be awhile before he takes the field at the major league level, the Astros have to be happy that Alvarez is in their organization.
***Stats provided by MLB.com, MiLB.com, Baseball Reference and Fangraphs***