How Will the Astros Move Forward Without Yordan Alvarez?
The star slugger is back on the injured list. Where does Houston go from here?
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Yordan Alvarez is hurt again, and his chances of playing at all the rest of the season aren’t looking good.
The Houston Astros slugger, who has played just 48 games this year and 19 since returning from a broken bone in his hand, suffered a “significant” left ankle sprain Monday, manager Joe Espada told reporters.
Houston is 83-69, sitting 0.5 games back of Seattle in the AL West and three games up on the Guardians for a Wild Card spot.
Alvarez had slashed .369/.409/.569 since his return on Aug. 26. Houston is 10-10 since its top bat returned to the lineup, but the Astros are now facing life without him.
“This is going to keep him out for a while,” Espada said, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. “Let’s not get into days, weeks, any of that. We are going to take one day at a time, but this is going to take some time to heal. We don’t have that many days left in the regular season. He’s in [the clubhouse] getting some treatment, getting work done. Hopefully he’s not out for a long period of time.”
Alvarez’s absence shortens Houston’s lineup even more, given the long-term injury to Isaac Paredes and a decrease in playing time for Cam Smith, not to mention a pitching staff littered with question marks.
The Astros will have to rely on Jeremy Peña, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and Christian Walker to provide some offensive consistency, but that hasn’t always been a reliable option this year.
Peña had been slumping with a .633 OPS the last two weeks (before last night’s big game), Correa had a .703 OPS with the Twins before being traded, Altuve’s 110 wRC+ is his lowest in a full season since 2013, and Walker is cold again in September after heating up during July and August.
Pena, Correa and Altuve have been a winning formula for the Astros in the past, so maybe the trio can will the perennial AL powerhouse to another deep run. This could also be a moot point if Josh Hader returns from injury and Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez are in peak form the rest of the way. But not having your best hitter isn’t a good thing heading into a postseason push.
Thankfully, Espada has a few options to plug the 6-foot-4, 237-pound hole in his lineup.
Count on Cam Smith To Right the Ship
The first option would be to give Smith regular run again and let him DH. Things got bad in the dog days — he had a 59 wRC+ in July and a 28 wRC+ in August — but what’s to say he can’t turn things right back around? The rookie has an .861 OPS in 11 September games and proved early on that he can handle big league pitching.
The biggest thing Smith needs to do is pull the ball when he elevates it. He has just a 22.5% pull rate on fly balls and a 23.3% pull rate on line drives (entering play last night). Smith also had a 47.9% ground ball rate in August and a 41.5% rate in July.
The Florida State product is still young and just over a year into his professional career, but he has to figure out a way to use the Crawford Boxes if he wants to make an immediate impact. Pulling the ball toward the short porch will help him pick up cheap extra-base hits and can make him a productive replacement for Alvarez in the short term.
If Smith can figure things out, this would be the easiest way for the Astros to fill Alvarez’s hole with an impact bat.
Use Two Catchers
The Astros went with two catchers in Alvarez’s first game out of the lineup Tuesday, with Yainer Diaz at DH and Victor Caratini behind the plate. This gets two above-average bats in the lineup, as long as you believe in Caratini’s 105 wRC+ this season and like Diaz’s bat more than the 92 wRC+ he’s posted in 2025.
Diaz has been heating up in September with a .778 OPS. He has been a solid hitter the last two years and can really lengthen the lineup when he’s hot. Caratini is a solid backup having a good season, and he has been clutch, with five home runs and a .785 OPS with runners in scoring position.
Using both on a daily basis can preserve Diaz’s legs for the postseason and provide Caratini more opportunities to get those big hits. It would also allow the Astros to be more flexible pinch-hitting, because they would have an extra utility player on the bench. They could also keep a third catcher there to give one of Diaz pr Caratini a true day out of the squat when necessary.
Platoon and Hope
Zach Cole was in the lineup batting fifth Tuesday, but he has just four big league games under his belt. He’s a left-handed hitter who, in a short sample, has looked like he can handle righties.
Mauricio Dubón and Ramón Urías are both major league-caliber hitters from the right side and provide the defensive flexibility to let some veterans cycle through the DH slot. Taylor Trammell can also work in for Cole if the rookie starts to struggle.
This feels like the biggest gamble of the three options, but likely the least volatile. The Astros won’t get much more than league-average offense from the four, but they likely won’t create a black hole in the lineup either.
Having four options can allow Espada to deploy guys in a way that will give each the best chance at success.
Unless Alvarez can make it back to 100% by the end of the regular season, Houston will have a problem on its hands.
With a pitching staff that is beat up and has been suspect at points this season and an aging and inconsistent offense, Alvarez’s injury could be the final blow for an Astros team fighting to keep a postseason spot.
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