No one doesn’t want Yordan Alvarez. He’ll be a low-third or high-fourth rounder in 2022 redraft leagues. This isn’t a binary buy-sell article on Alvarez in that we all know he’s good. But do we know how good he is?
Yordan Alvarez Career to Date
| Season |
Age |
PA |
AVG |
OBP |
SLG |
xSLG |
ISO |
wOBA |
xwOBA |
wRC+ |
Barrel% |
HH% |
| 2019 |
22 |
369 |
.313 |
.412 |
.655 |
.588 |
.342 |
.432 |
.405 |
176 |
16.30% |
48.40% |
| 2020 |
23 |
9 |
.250 |
.333 |
.625 |
.450 |
.375 |
.399 |
.358 |
158 |
0.00% |
71.40% |
| 2021 |
24 |
598 |
.277 |
.346 |
.531 |
.570 |
.253 |
.369 |
.389 |
138 |
15.90% |
54.20% |
| Total |
|
976 |
.290 |
.371 |
.577 |
|
.287 |
.393 |
|
153 |
15.90% |
52.30% |
Putting Alvarez’ first 976 PAs into context against other players with 750-plus PAs since 2019:
His SLG% ranks third, behind only Mike Trout and Fernando Tatis Jr. His wRC+ is tied for third. His wOBA ranks sixth. And he ranks seventh among hitters in barrel rate with 600-plus batted ball events.
Alvarez is somewhere in the top-ten among real-life hitters in MLB and will likely be toward the bottom of the top-20 among hitters in ADP. Houston is probably gonna keep getting on base a ton, with or without Carlos Correa, so the hitting in the middle of that order is gonna keep showing a profit. The profit that should make up for virtually no expected steals.
Alvarez has a history of injury, but I don’t really care about 25-year-old DH who just played a full season. Personally, I don’t even equate it.
His walk rate could be higher and strikeout rate is about fine. The team coaches contact, so there is room for growth on both ends. Even if the strikeout rate falls without the wall rate rising, we see in Alvarez’ elite barrel rate that contact is good for our purposes.
Alvarez’ .335 BABIP is really high, but I don’t really give a crap about that because he pulverizes the ball on contact so often. High BABIPs are usually ripe with good fortune, but there is such thing as a high quantity of high-quality contact. I’d bank more on his .369 wOBA in 2021 inches up closer to his .389 xwOBA because his quality of contact is so pure. And the super-raw, extremely early returns are agreeing with me out of the gate.
ATC has Alvarez 2022-projected wOBA at .385. THE BAT X at .382 and Steamer at .379.
Alvarez’ .570 xSLG% was far great than his .529 SLG%. ATC has him projected early at .557 for 2022, THE BAT X has .551, and the more conservative Steamer still has him boosted to .546 — .313-projected BABIP be damned.
Factoring in the bats around Alvarez boosting his run production — Jose Altuve the Everyman, a healthy Alex Bregman, the ageless Yuli Gurriel, the high power of Kyle Tucker, and the perpetual hitting efficiency of Michael Brantley — we should be projecting Alvarez as a top-12 fantasy hitter in redrafts and even higher in dynasty and keeper formats. He’s only turning 25 this season and without defense for fantasy or a speed-dependency on the table, he should age very well.
