Already trailing the Texas Rangers in the AL West, the Houston Astros are going to have to try to make up ground without their MVP candidate for a while. The team placed star outfielder/DH Yordan Alvarez on the 10-day IL on Friday afternoon with what’s being called right oblique discomfort.
We have placed OF Yordan Alvarez on the 10-day IL (right oblique discomfort). He will return to Houston for further evaluation.
— Houston Astros (@astros) June 9, 2023
The injury first arose during Thursday night’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, when Alvarez was forced to leave the game after his first at-bat with pain in his side. The team has yet to release any sort of preliminary timetable, saying only that Alvarez would be heading back to Houston for further evaluation. We should have a better idea of how long the All-Star might be out in the next couple of days, but if it is indeed an oblique strain, it’s an injury that has led to some lengthy absences in the past.
No matter how long he winds up being out, it’s a devastating blow to the Astros lineup, as Alvarez was once again terrorizing the league. The 25-year-old has slashed a ridiculous .272/.384/.579 with 17 homers and a Major League-leading 55 RBI in 57 games this year — numbers that are actually down slightly from 2022, when he posted a 1.019 OPS and finished third in AL MVP voting behind only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. The lefty is, quite simply, among — if not the — best pure hitter in baseball right now, and his absence will be tough to swallow for an Astros offense that ranks a middling eighth in the AL in both runs scored and OPS.
Houston enters play Friday at a healthy 36-27, but that’s still five games off the pace of a Texas Rangers team that shows no signs of slowing down. The rotation trio of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier and Hunter Brown can compete with any team in baseball, but with Alvarez out, Houston will need Jose Altuve and Kyle Tucker to find their superstar form ASAP. Corey Julks is likely to see the bulk of the playing time in left field, while Michael Brantley seems to finally be nearing a return from the shoulder injury that’s kept him out all year.