The Houston Astros are among the hottest teams in baseball right now, winners of seven of their last 10 games and owners of the second-best record in the American League entering play on Tuesday. And those numbers are even more impressive than they sound, when you consider just who Houston has been without on its way to building that record.
Slugger Yordan Alvarez has appeared in just 27 games so far this season. He's been on the shelf since the beginning of May with a hand injury, and while both the team and its fans thought they'd have their star DH back by now, it appears he's no closer to a return as the calendar flips to July. In fact, things might be getting worse: According to The Athletic's Chandler Rome, Alvarez "suffered a setback" in his hand while taking swings at the team's complex in Florida this week, and has been shut down from baseball activities in order to undergo further testing.
Yordan Alvarez suffered a setback in West Palm Beach, Dana Brown said. He reported hand soreness after taking some swings on Monday and has been shut down. Alvarez will see a specialist in the next 48 hours, after which the Astros hope to know more.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) July 1, 2025
Alvarez's injury was already something of a mystery; initially diagnosed as inflammation in his right hand, the Astros then said he had a "muscle strain," and sounded confident that he'd be able to start taking swings again just a couple of weeks after landing on the IL. Manager Joe Espada called him "really close" ... back on May 15.
And now, some six weeks later, here we are, with Alvarez still on the shelf and the team seemingly no closer to figuring out what's actually wrong with him. It's a maddening state of affairs — but if you're an Astros fan, it's probably not a surprising one, considering the way Houston mismanaged Kyle Tucker's injury just a year ago.
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Yordan Alvarez setback feels all too familiar after Kyle Tucker saga
Tucker missed just over three months of the 2024 season due to what was eventually revealed to be a shin fracture suffered on a foul ball in early June. But for nearly the entirety of that time, the Astros kept everyone in the dark. Or maybe that's not strictly accurate: For nearly the entirety of that time, the Astros didn't seem to actually know that Tucker had a fracture at all, with GM Dana Brown only revealing as much to the public in early September, days before the outfielder finally returned to the lineup. For weeks, fans and teammates were hoping for some good news, while Houston kept stringing them along.
In the words of Dr. Doofenshmirtz: If I had a nickel for every time the Astros seemed caught totally off-guard by an injury to their most important player, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. It's positively ridiculous that this happened at all; MLB teams have every possible tool at their disposal, and in the year of our lord 2025, it can't be that hard to run enough tests to determine whether a player has a bone fracture or not. The fact that it's happened two seasons running, after they were raked over the coals for the Tucker saga? That does not inspire a ton of confidence in Houston's medical staff, to put it mildly.
Of course, Astros fans probably didn't have a ton of confidence in this group to begin with, given how the rest of Houston's season has gone.
Astros awful injury luck could cost them a dream season
Unfortunately, the Alvarez saga was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes do Houston's rotten injury luck in 2025. The team's pitching staff has been hit particularly hard: You could form a pretty god starting rotation with the arms the Astros have on the IL right now, from Spencer Arrighetti to Ronel Blanco to Cristian Javier to Luis Garcia to J.P. France. Oh, and that's not even mentioning shortstop and dark-horse MVP candidate Jeremy Pena, who's now on the Injured List with a rib fracture; again, it's a minor miracle that Houston has been as good as it has been in spite of all of that adversity.
But for as resilient as the Astros have been so far this season, eventually every team hits its limit. It's awfully hard to keep on finding next men up, and the idea that Alvarez might be out for even longer (or even wind up missing the entire season, at this point) puts yet more pressure on Brown to find a left-handed bat at some point before the trade deadline. If he doesn't, this roster might finally collapse under the weight. And if that happens, fans are going to be asking some tough questions about how this team handles its injuries.