Astros news: Yordan Alvarez injury now needs answering for

Yordan Alvarez’s brief return has only put the Houston Astros in a place where his newest absence is need of answering for—who will step up?

After revealing that he spent all last year with knee pain, Yordan Alvarez is now back on the Houston Astros injured list after coming back for just two games, homering in his first at-bat, and unlocking a clogged-up offense for an MLB-record nine-run inning against the Seattle Mariners.

When Alvarez was missing at the beginning of the season, it hurt, but there was enough distance between then and last season that it didn’t feel like a sudden absence. It’s something we’d expected, we’d get through until he got back.

Now that we’ve seen what his presence in the lineup does, this team desperately needs someone to step up into the void this lineup is currently dealing with.

Someone must step up in the newest Yordan Alvarez absence

Alex Bregman has, thankfully, been coming around lately, and adding him to Yuli Gurriel and Carlos Correa, we have three guys currently hitting.

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That isn’t enough though. Alvarez seemed to bring out the best in everyone before his untimely exit. That task now has to be picked up by someone else, and it’s unclear yet who that person is going to be. I’ve detailed a lot of players who look like they’re on the brink of breaking out—Springer, Altuve, Toro.

They’re all hitting the ball hard with just small tweaks they can’t seem to get right.

But in terms of timing when they’ll be back? Good luck. Especially when you see Springer in and out of the lineup with injuries, Altuve swinging wildly, and Toro so unproven that you just never know when/if he might come around.

Maybe it’s Kyle Tucker. He needs to do something to help his own stock. Maybe it’s more from Bregman. Who knows. But the situation is different now that so many other batters are still struggling. This lineup has so many guys that can step up into the offensive void, so the fact that their biggest candidate is injured shouldn’t mean that we can’t find someone else to take up the charge. The candidates are all over the place.

With a shortened season though, it’s impossible to predict the impact that the added pertinence is affecting guys that aren’t used to such situations. So maybe the best solution is to just bank on the return of Alvarez rather than hoping someone else can step up in the meantime.