Yordan Alvarez Is Still the Best Hitter Nobody Talks About

Last October, I wrote about Yordan Alvarez, one of the most underrated superstars in the game. Less than a year later, I already feel compelled to return to the same subject.

There is no doubt that Alvarez is a great player, but he doesn’t get nearly enough recognition for just how great he is. Mike Petriello of MLB.com recently wrote about a similar topic. I’m hardly alone in thinking Alvarez deserves more credit.

Since he burst onto the scene in 2019, Alvarez boasts a 165 wRC+. That means he has been 65% better than a league-average hitter over that time.

To put that another way, the difference between Alvarez and a perfectly respectable, average hitter is the same as the difference between that average hitter and Adam Wainright (career 35 wRC+).

Yordan Alvarez makes your typical big league batter look like a pitcher. A pretty good hitting pitcher, sure, but still a pitcher. You know, the guys who were such bad hitters that the league invented Alvarez’s position just to get them out of the lineup.

One of the Greatest Hitters of His Generation

Out of 761 batters who have taken at least 1,500 trips to the plate in the last 20 years, Alvarez’s 165 wRC+ ranks third. He is one of only five players with a wRC+ at least 50% better than league average in that span.

Soon-to-be two-time AL MVP Aaron Judge ranks first on that list (173 wRC+). Three-time AL MVP Mike Trout is second (169). Trout’s former Angels teammate and another multiple-time MVP winner, Shohei Ohtani, ranks fifth (150).

Juan Soto, who ranks fourth (158), has never won an MVP, but he is already a consensus future Hall of Famer. He is putting himself in a strong position to command a record-breaking contract this winter.

Judge, Trout, and Ohtani have all signed record-setting contracts of their own in the recent past. Soto could blow all of them out of the water.

Alvarez isn’t nearly as big of a star as those other four. He has never won an MVP. He is playing on a trifling (by comparison) $115 million deal.

Alvarez isn’t a two-way superstar like Ohtani or a young phenom like Soto. He isn’t an all-around stud like Trout in his prime. He isn’t the single greatest hitter of his generation like Judge.

Still, he’s one of the greatest hitters the game has seen since the steroid era, and I don’t think enough people realize that.

Yordan Alvarez Is in Hall of Fame Company

More than 800 players in MLB history have accumulated at least 2,500 PA through their age-27 seasons. Only 14 did so with a higher wRC+ than Alvarez.

Of those 14, 11 are Hall of Famers, two are future Hall of Famers (Trout and Albert Pujols), and one would be a Hall of Famer if he weren’t banned from the sport (Shoeless Joe Jackson).

It’s too soon to say if Alvarez will be a Hall of Famer himself, but clearly, he’s off to a pretty great start.

Only two Hall of Famers played at least two-thirds of their games at DH: Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz.

Through his age-27 season, Martinez had a career 121 wRC+ and 6.3 FanGraphs WAR. Ortiz had a 115 wRC+ and 5.4 fWAR.

Alvarez has a career 165 wRC+ and 22.1 fWAR, and his age-27 season isn’t even over yet.

To be fair, Martinez and Ortiz were famously late bloomers. Alvarez can only dream of having the same longevity. Martinez and Ortiz were both All-Stars and Silver Sluggers in their age-40 seasons. That’s why I say it’s too soon to deem Alvarez a future Hall of Famer.

At the same time, no MLB player has ever gotten off to such a strong start to his career without finishing as a deserving Hall of Famer.

What’s more, no one has ever gotten off to such a strong start as a primary DH.

That’s how good Yordan Alvarez is.

How Is Yordan Alvarez Still So Underrated?

When I say that Alvarez is underrated, I don’t mean he doesn’t get any credit.

He already has a Rookie of the Year, an ALCS MVP, a Silver Slugger, and three All-Star selections on his resume. He has been named to the First or Second All-MLB team in four of the past five seasons.

Still, Alvarez has consistently been overshadowed by bigger names like Judge, Ohtani, and Soto. He has also been overshadowed by the future Hall of Famers with whom he shares a clubhouse, namely Jose Altuve and Justin Verlander.

Not to mention, the Astros’ numerous team-wide postseason accomplishments overshadow the regular season efforts of any individual player.

On top of all that, injuries have curtailed Alvarez’s early career accomplishments, preventing him from putting up even more incredible counting stats.

For all those reasons, Yordan Alvarez is underrated. Not only is that a disservice to Alvarez himself, but to every baseball fan who might not have realized they were watching a generational talent in his prime.

So, for his sake and ours, I hope this is the final time I ever feel compelled to write an article like this.

Stats updated prior to games on August 28.