What Major Astros Record is Likely to be Broken Next?

Single-Season Slugging Percentage: Yordan Alvarez
Current Record: Jeff Bagwell/Richard Hidalgo

In terms of hitting, Alvarez has the chance to put together the best power-hitting single season that has ever been seen in Houston. While he has understandably cooled off since his other-worldly first half, Alvarez should still at least be in the top-5 or top-10 in AL MVP voting, and his current 2022 slugging percentage of .608 isn’t that far off from the team’s single-season record.

Although, there are conflicting opinions as to what that record really is because it’s impacted by the shortened season as a result of the player’s strike in 1994. In that season, Jeff Bagwell slugged .750 in 110 games. Alvarez isn’t going to come close to matching that, but Richard Hidalgo’s full-season record of .636 is in reach. Hidalgo had a short and inconsistent but overall impressive tenure with the Astros, and he set that mark in 2000.

If Yordan Alvarez goes on a hot streak in September, specifically one that features plenty of extra-base hits, he would then hold the Astros’ full-season slugging percentage record. Aside from Bagwell and Hidalgo, Lance Berkman slugged over .620 a couple of times in the 2000s. Moises Alou is also someone that Alvarez would have to surpass, as he slugged .623 in 2000. Despite that 2000 team featuring Bagwell, Hidalgo, and Alou, the Astros somehow only won 72 games due to a weak pitching staff.

Even if Alvarez doesn’t break the record this year, he’s an easy candidate to do so in the future. He’s only 25 years old and he has been one of the best power hitters in the entire sport since he debuted in 2019. At this rate, he could someday break the career records that players such as Bagwell and Craig Biggio hold today.