HOUSTON -- Nothing motivated Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez more throughout the season than the fact he was limited to 48 games in 2025 because of a pair of injuries, which may have played a role in some of those around baseball forgetting about his standing as one of the game’s elite sluggers.
Alvarez served notice early in ‘26 that he was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the American League when he was named AL Player of the Month in March/April, posting a 1.199 OPS with 12 homers and 27 RBIs in the season’s first 32 games. A healthy Alvarez was just getting started.
What followed was one of the most dominant offensive seasons in Astros history, which culminated Thursday with Alvarez becoming the third player in Houston history to win a Most Valuable Player Award, joining Jeff Bagwell in the National League in 1994 and Jose Altuve in the AL in 2017. Like Bagwell, Alvarez was a unanimous winner with all 30 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Junior Caminero of the Rays was second and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals came in third.
“Everybody knows I had some injury struggles last year and everybody knows what happened last year, so yes, that was on my mind,” Alvarez said. “I was anxious to get back to this season and now see where that ended up here with an MVP Award.”
An imposing left-hander slugger who also possesses elite plate discipline, Alvarez won his first AL batting title by hitting .316 while leading the AL 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). He also finished second in RBIs (106) and tied for second in home runs (42), both of which were career highs. And he drew 33 intentional walks, which are the second-most in AL history.
Alvarez is only the second player to win the award at DH, joining Shohei Ohtani, who was primarily a DH in all of his winning seasons. He’s also the fourth Cuban to win the award and the first since José Abreu of the White Sox in 2020.
When the announcement was made live on MLB Network, Alvarez’s son, Jordan, kissed him on the cheek and on top of his head. He was surrounded by his family in his Houston home, including his wife, Monica, daughter, Mia, his parents and brother.
“Some of my teammates and my family made a [congratulatory] video for me,” Alvarez said. “[Jordan] kind of knew what was going on and there was a good chance I would win this. Once the announcement was made, that’s where his emotions were able to come out and his excitement really wasn’t able to be contained. That was really fun for me to see that video afterward and to hear how proud they were of me.”
In 2025, Alvarez missed 100 games while recovering from a broken bone in his right hand. He returned to action in late August and was crushing the ball before he suffered a left ankle sprain when he slipped on home plate on Sept. 15 against the Rangers, ending his season. In ‘26, he was seventh in the AL with 692 plate appearances.
“This season, it was much different, just me being healthy,” he said. “Never really had any minor injuries or anything or any pains or any soreness during the season. I was able to maintain myself throughout the season, and we saw what that amounted to playing all the time and staying healthy.”
Bagwell, a Hall of Famer who, like Alvarez, came to the Astros as a Minor Leaguer in a lopsided trade, accompanied Alvarez and his wife and owner Jim Crane to 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.”
Alvarez, who was also the AL Player of the Month in July, had some MVP-type moments, too. He had a two-run homer and grand slam in the 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.
There were many others, but when asked what he was the most proud of this past season, Alvarez said his health.
“I’m proud I was able to maintain my health all year and worked hard to stay healthy this year,” he said. “Second, I’ve always wanted to have a batting title to my name. I’m really proud of that one. Now obviously with MVP I’m super proud I was able to win the MVP and get there.”