Nobody hit more than Yordan Álvarez in the 2026 regular season. It was a goal that the Cuban had and he fulfilled it to the fullest. His .316 was the highest average in all of baseball and allowed him to win the American League batting title.
The Houston Astros designated hitter, who already had a World Series ring (2022), a Silver Slugger (2022) and a Rookie of the Year (2019) in his awards cabinet, assured that he worked hard this year, with a personal trainer who traveled with him, to achieve his goal.
“Personally, super proud, super proud of myself for winning that championship. It was something I had always wanted,” said Álvarez before the start of the postseason, in which the Houston Astros face the Chicago White Sox in one of the Wild Card series of the young circuit.
“Winning a championship had crossed my mind one day and I think I achieved it,” added the one from Las Tunas.
Álvarez not only dominated in average, he also led all of MLB in OPS 1.033, Slugging .601, WPA 6.2 and WAR 7.2.
In the regular season there was, for sure, no one to stop him. And Will Venable knows that.
“I don’t know exactly what the plan is,” says Chicago manager
Among the rivals that Houston saw on at least 6 occasions, precisely the Chicago White Sox were the team that received the least damage from Yordan Álvarez.
The Cuban, in the regular round, went 4-for-20 (.200) against the white-legs, against whom he could only drive in one run. Even so, Venable still says they don’t have the formula to contain Yordan.
“I don’t know exactly what the plan is, other than that we have a plan of attack in which we know which areas of the home plate we want to attack. We also know that there will be situations during this game where we don’t want to face him at all and we will potentially walk him,” the strategist said before the first game of the wild card series.
“So we’re going to walk that line throughout the series and try to do the best we can, given the situation and all the information we have. The situation on the mound, the state of the game and all those factors play a role. So I don’t think there’s one way to deal with it or decide when not to do it. We know it’s a real problem in the middle of a very good lineup and we’ll deal with it in the best way possible when the time comes,” he added.
