All-Star Alvarez balances softer side with MVP-caliber season

ARLINGTON -- Moments after he hit a dramatic two-run walk-off home run to complete an improbable comeback win over the Rays on July 4, Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez made his way through the swarm of teammates awaiting him at home plate and found his son in the seats behind home plate.

Five-year-old Jordan Alvarez was in the second row of the Diamond Club seats when his dad blasted his second homer of the game -- and 199th of his career -- and stood up and cheered like everyone else at Daikin Park. Soon, the two were hugging -- Yordan on a knee and embracing his son through an open gate that separates the field and the stands.

There, on full display, was the softer side of Alvarez, the fearsome slugger who is on pace to smash the team’s single-season home run record and was voted by the fans as the American League starter at designated hitter for next week’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Jordan will be there, too, along with Alvarez’s wife, Monica, their daughter, Mia, and other family members.

“I’m super close with my family,” Alvarez said. “It was always a dream of mine to be able to have a kid and be able to bring him to the ballpark and play ball with him at the ballpark. He loves coming to the ballpark and he recognizes the players and knows how special it is.”

In the batter’s box, Alvarez strikes fear in opposing pitchers with his prodigious home run swing and keen eye at the plate. He crushed the 200th homer of his career -- 30th of the season -- in Friday’s 7-3 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field, which made him the second-fastest Astro to reach 30 home runs in a season -- 96 games in -- trailing only Jeff Bagwell’s 1999 (91). Those who know him well, though, like to gush about the softer side of the big man with the mighty swing.

“It’s very hard to explain because we see his production on the field and how good he is and you see the energy he brings to the stadium,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He’s locked in, he’s a competitor. On the other side, there’s a person that a lot of people don’t see, which is the father, the soft-spoken guy that we get to appreciate. This guy is feared on the field, but there’s a soft side to him in a good way.”

The stoic, hulking figure who’s the favorite to win the AL Most Valuable Player is actually a teddy bear. Who knew?

“He’s a great dad, a great person, very even-keeled,” said former teammate Mauricio Dubón, who was one of Alvarez’s closest friends while they both were with the Astros. “I don’t think he knows he’s Yordan Alvarez. That’s the funny thing about it.”

Dubón knows the other side of Alvarez as well as anybody. He’s been at Alvarez’s Houston home on numerous occasions when the slugger hosted backyard barbecues. They would hang out at the pool, drink a couple of beers and play dominoes. Something any suburban dad would want to do with his buddies on a day off.

“You get to see him in the pool, hanging out with his kids and how he talks to his kids, how lovable he is, he’s a good human,” Espada said.

Alvarez loves the outdoors and has a boat he takes around the southeast Texas waterways when he’s not playing baseball. One of his greatest joys is taking road trips in an RV with his family. With Yordan behind the wheel, the Alvarezes have taken road trips to upstate New York and the Florida Keys.

“The way me and my wife have raised them, we’ve raised them without any limits,” Alvarez said. “Any adventures that we go on, my kids are going to be going with me.”

Alvarez has had four different RVs in the past three years. He had one previously that was basically a bus, but has since downsized so the family can be closer together. His dream trip is to take his family up and down the California coast in the RV.

“We all fit and it’s very comfortable,” he said.

Alvarez, 29, entered the weekend leading the Major Leagues in OPS (1.038), on-base percentage (.417), slugging percentage (.621) and total bases (213), ranked first in the AL in home runs (30) and RBIs (68). He’s sixth on the club’s all-time home run list and is aiming at Jeff Bagwell’s single-season franchise record of 47, set in 2000. He's also only two behind Bagwell (32 in 1999) for most homers by an Astro through 96 team games.

Bagwell (1994) and Altuve (2017) -- also soft-spoken sluggers -- are the only Astros players to win an MVP award. Alvarez could join the list.

“No doubt he’s hands-down the best player right now in the league,” Altuve said. “It’s crazy everything he’s doing. He does it over and over. We know he’s going to hit a lot of homers, but when he hits it, we’re still surprised. He’s amazing. He deserves everything that happens to him.”