HOUSTON -- There’s little doubt that Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez is the front-runner for the American League Most Valuable Player Award with the midpoint of the season quickly approaching. But can he keep it up and join Jeff Bagwell and Jose Altuve as the club’s only players to win the honor?
Alvarez cranked the Astros’ first grand slam of the season -- and the fifth of his career -- to move into the AL lead in homers (22) and RBIs (48), guiding Houston to a 13-2 rout of the A’s on Saturday afternoon at Daikin Park. Alvarez went 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored, improving his season slash line to .316/.430/.654.
The only thing that may keep Alvarez from winning the MVP would be an injury, but he’s played in all but one game this season after missing over 100 games in 2025. Everything is lining up for Alvarez to have a huge summer.
“From what I’ve seen, he’s got a serious chance at it,” said teammate Christian Walker, who was leading the AL in RBIs entering Saturday before Alvarez passed him. “The ability to execute at a high level and dominate, but then to do it night in and night out is so impressive. I think his ability to command the strike one and make good decisions and take his walks seriously increases his chances. I’ll definitely be rooting for him, for sure. It’s a lot of fun to watch.”
The Astros also got homers from Lamonte Wade Jr. -- his first with Houston -- and Altuve, the 2017 AL MVP who led off the bottom of the third inning with the 260th homer of his career. Houston scored five times in the second behind the homers from Wade and Alvarez and added six runs in the fifth, including two-run doubles by Wade and Jeremy Peña, an RBI double by Christian Vázquez and a Jake Meyers RBI single.
With Alvarez leading the way, the Astros scored their most runs since beating the Dodgers, 18-1, in Los Angeles on July 4, 2025. Alvarez’s homer was the 192nd of his career, surpassing Alex Bregman and moving into sixth place on the Astros’ all-time homer list.
“In big moments, he rises to the occasion and just finds a way to boost our club,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Just a really good hitter. But we had a ton of really good at-bats and a lot of people contributed to our win today.”
In MLB.com’s second MVP poll of the season revealed earlier this week, Alvarez was the front-runner in the AL, edging out Aaron Judge of the Yankees in a survey of 35 MLB.com experts. But that was before Judge landed on the injured list with a stress fracture of his right first rib cage, an injury suffered in Houston in April.
The Yankees said that Judge will be re-imaged in four to six weeks to assess healing and the appropriate next steps in his recovery, which could take Judge -- the winner of three of the last four AL MVP Awards -- out of the MVP race. Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals was third in the MLB.com survey and the Yankees' Ben Rice was fourth.
Wade, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and was a triple shy of the cycle in his second game with Houston, has marveled at Alvarez’s ability from across the field for years. Watching him up close hasn’t changed his opinion.
“He’s special,” he said. “You’ve seen that from the other side and just to see it even now in person and watch his routine and how focused he is in the cages and all his work that he does is impressive to watch. One of the best I’ve ever seen. Really cool to be on this side of it now, for sure.”
The closest any Astros player has come to winning the Triple Crown came in Bagwell’s National League MVP 1994 season, when he was second in the NL in batting average and home runs and first in RBIs. The only other time an Astros player finished in the top five in all three Triple Crown categories was Alvarez in 2022 – homers (3rd), average (4th) and RBIs (5th). That season, he finished third in AL MVP voting behind Judge and Shohei Ohtani.
The 2026 AL MVP is Alvarez’s to lose.