Yordan Alvarez appears headed for his fourth All-Star selection and leads all American League position players in fan voting — but don’t expect to see him in the Home Run Derby.
After Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians, in which Alvarez hit his AL-leading 25th home run, the Astros slugger was asked about the Derby. His answer was brief.
“No,” Alvarez said.
When pressed, he added, “Not this year.”
Alvarez has never participated in the Derby. As recently as 2024, he left the door open, saying through an interpreter that he might be open to it “at some time in my career, down the line.”
His All-Star case, meanwhile, is difficult to argue against.
When MLB released its first fan voting update this week, Alvarez ranked second among major league position players, behind only Shohei Ohtani.
He enters the week leading all qualified major league hitters in OPS (1.054) and slugging (.630), ranking second among qualified AL hitters in batting average (.320) and on-base percentage (.424). He also leads the AL in home runs and trails only Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber across baseball.
Sunday’s homer ended his longest homer-less stretch of the season at seven games. It also followed a 25-game on-base streak in which Alvarez posted a 1.158 OPS before the streak ended Saturday.
“I feel very good right now,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “I don’t think it’s a secret right now that they’re pitching me with a lot of caution. So I have to make adjustments to not chase the pitches that they want me to chase.”
That caution is reflected in the numbers. Alvarez has drawn 49 walks against 57 strikeouts this season, including a majors-leading 10 intentional walks. He has played in all but one of Houston’s 79 games, starting 66 at designated hitter and 12 in left field.
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