Houston Astros general manager Dana Brown revealed that slugger Yordan Alvarez will be out for quite some time due to his oblique injury.
The Houston Astros started their World Series championship defense tour without second baseman Jose Altuve, who broke his hand during the World Baseball Classic. He has since returned, but the Astros lost another one of their pivotal players due to injury — slugger Yordan Alvarez. On June 9, Alvarez was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain, with no real timetable for a return, as manager Dusty Baker said on Tuesday night that he's "a ways off."
On Wednesday, The Athletic's Chandler Rome tweeted out that general manager Dana Brown "made it sound like Alvarez is at least three weeks away from any sort of baseball activities," during an appearance on SportsTalk 790.
"It's going to take at least two weeks for us to get a feel for how it's healing," said Brown, h/t MLB Trade Rumors. "You take those two weeks and then another week to figure out when he starts to have some activity, and OK, how's his body responding? That's three weeks right there. You're looking at, once he's starting to swing a bat, maybe it's four weeks or so."
Astros: Yordan Alvarez is a while away from resuming baseball activities
That's not good news for the Astros, who are in the midst of a tough battle for first place in the AL West with the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels.
The injury occurred during Houston's June 8 game against the Toronto Blue Jays, where he felt discomfort in his right oblique. As mentioned earlier, he was placed on the injured list one day later.
So far this season, Alvarez had recorded a .277 batting average, a .388 on-base percentage, a .589 slugging percentage, 17 home runs, 41 runs scored, 55 RBI, and 56 hits in 57 games played.
Houston will have to bank on their batting order stepping up in Alvarez's absence, as they have some big series' against the likes of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, and Rangers right before the All-Star break.