Astros’ Yordan Alvarez placed on IL with right hand inflammation
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Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez is going on the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his right hand.
The issue had caused the three-time All-Star to miss the last two games of the Astros’ weekend series with the Chicago White Sox. The move, announced before the Astros’ Monday night game at Milwaukee, is retroactive to Saturday.
Alvarez was dealing with the inflammation even before Saturday, however: Astros’ manager Joe Espada told MLB.com prior to Saturday’s contest that Alvarez had already been suffering from the pain in his hand “for a few days,” and that things didn’t feel right while taking swings prior to that game. “It’s just been sore for a couple of days and created some inflammation, kind of on the side of his right hand. We’re going to give him a day.”
Houston recalled catcher Cesar Salazar from Triple-A Sugar Land in a corresponding move.
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Alvarez, 27, has batted .210 with a .306 on-base percentage, three homers and 18 RBIs in 29 games this season. That follows a 2024 season in which he batted. 308 with a .392 on-base percentage, 35 homers and 86 RBIs in 147 games while earning a third straight All-Star Game selection and finishing ninth in the AL Most Valuable Player voting.
He has posted an OPS of at least .959 each of the past three seasons and ranked fourth in the AL in that category last year. The Astros’ offense has been below-average to begin the 2025 season, and while Alvarez has also had a rough start, an extended absence wouldn’t help to fix the team’s run production.
This is the second time that he has gone on the IL due to hand inflammation: in 2022, he was placed on the 10-day IL and missed 11 days with inflammation in the same hand. He also got a late start hitting in spring training in 2023, in an effort to protect his left hand, which had hampered him at the end of the previous season and bothered him over the offseason.
Salazar, 26, was hitting .197 with a .305 on-base percentage, two homers and seven RBIs in 21 games for Sugar Land. He hit .320 with a .387 on-base percentage, no homers and eight RBIs in 12 games with Houston last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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