In a surprise to absolutely nobody, Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez was named as a finalist for the American League MVP award earlier this week. This was a long time coming and guaranteed for Alvarez, who put together by far the best season of his career.

Alvarez was named alongside Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals. This was the second time that Alvarez has been named an MVP finalist, with the last being in 2022 when he finished third. The last Astros player to be named a finalist before Alvarez was Jose Altuve in 2017, who won the award.

Alvarez was considered to be the best hitter in the AL throughout the year, and he carried the Astros lineup on its way to an AL West division title and postseason appearance. There's an argument to be made that he is the most dangerous slugger in baseball.

Alvarez won AL Rookie of the Year in 2019 when he burst onto the scene with 27 homers and a 1.067 OPS. There have been a couple of injury-plagued seasons for Alvarez, including 2025 when he missed 114 games. Even with some of his great regular season numbers, Alvarez flew under the radar regardless of his consistency.

Alvarez Takes Next Step to Greatness

It may have also been that he never crossed the 40 home run mark as well. Alvarez made his name known with some incredible postseason performances that will be forever remembered in Astros history. The Las Tunas, Cuba native was the 2021 ALCS MVP and followed that up with two of the biggest homers in Astros postseason history during the 2022 run to the World Series title.

Alvarez already lived up to the name of being one of the most fearsome hitters in the game, but a truly dominant regular season with big numbers where he put himself up with the biggest names was missing. That's where 2026 came in. He's now an MVP finalist for the first time in his career and is definitely the favorite to win it.

Right from the jump, Alvarez was crushing pitching left and right. He was on pace for a historic year. It seemed like the 6-foot-4, 237-pound designated hitter might earn the Triple Crown. Even the major league Triple Crown was on the table for a few weeks over the summer.

Alvarez ended up leading baseball in average at .316 and won his first batting title. He also led MLB in OPS (1.003), OBP (.432) SLG (.601) and walks (109). Alvarez hit 42 homers and had 106 RBI in 2026, both of which were new career highs. Both those marks were good for second in the AL.

Alvarez drew 33 intentional walks, which was by far the most in baseball and set a franchise record. The next closest was Shohei Ohtani with 16. Alvarez is officially one step closer winning the MVP, something that many have expected to him to win for some time. It wasn't a matter of how, but when Alvarez will take home that first MVP honor.