Yordan takes home first career MVP Award in unanimous victory
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HOUSTON -- After winning four awards at the MLB Awards Show on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez took home the biggest honor of his career Thursday.
Alvarez was named a unanimous winner of the American League Most Valuable Player Award in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, joining Jeff Bagwell and Jose Altuve as the only Astros to win an MVP. Bagwell won in 1994 in the NL and Altuve won in 2017 in the AL.
Alvarez won the AL batting title in 2026 by hitting .316 while leading the league in on-base percentage (.432), slugging percentage (.601), OPS (1.033), offensive WAR (7.2), total bases (341), walks (109) and extra-base hits (77), and finishing second in RBIs (106) and tying for second in home runs (42), both of which were career highs.
Alvarez is the third player since 1970 to win the AL batting title while hitting at least 40 homers, joining Aaron Judge (2025) and Miguel Cabrera (2011-12).
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Bagwell, a Hall of Famer and unanimous MVP winner 32 years ago, accompanied Alvarez and his wife and owner Jim Crane in Las Vegas on Wednesday for the MLB Awards. Alvarez took home the AL Hank Aaron Award, Edgar Martinez Outstanding DH Award, AL Comeback Player of the Year and was named All-MLB First Team.
“He’s such a humble kid,” Bagwell said. “It was an honor to be there with him and his wife and sit there at the table with him. For him to get all the praise he deserves, tonight is the culmination of the hard work. To get the unanimous MVP, it’s a special year. Every player wants to do well for the ballclub first and you can only do what you can do, and Yordan did it better than everybody.”
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Alvarez was named AL Player of the Month in March/April and July and led the Majors in batting average, OBP and slugging, becoming the first player to lead MLB in all three of those categories since Judge in 2025. Cabrera (2013) and Barry Bonds (2002) also accomplished this feat. All three were named MVP in their respective leagues.
Alvarez drew 33 intentional walks, breaking Bagwell’s club record of 27 in 1997. The only player in AL history to have more intentional walks in a season was Judge with 36 in ‘25.
When it came to MVP-like moments this season, Alvarez had those, too. Like the two-run homer and grand slam he hit in a nine-run first inning on June 12 in Kansas City, driving in a franchise-record six runs in an inning.
He provided early fireworks on July 4 at Daikin Park by hitting two home runs, including a two-run, walk-off homer to straightaway center in a come-from-behind win over the eventual AL champion Rays. On Aug. 2, he went 4-for-5 to complete a sweep of the first-place Rangers for Houston’s sixth consecutive win.