Yordan Alvarez may have only played in 87 games this season, but he made his presence felt early and often since he was called up by the Houston Astros on June 9th.
That was a big reason why he was the unanimous choice for the AL Rookie of the Year on Monday.
Alvarez’s major league career started off with a bang when he homered in his debut and set franchise records with four homers in his first five games and seven in his first 12 games. The Astros designated hitter finished his rookie campaign off with a franchise rookie record 27 home runs with 53 extra-base hits, collected 78 RBI and batted .313 in 87 games.
Alvarez is the first full-time designated hitter to win the award since Bob Hamelin, who won the award in 1994 with the Kansas City Royals. The 21-year-old product from Las Tunas, Cuba joined the organization as part of a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016 in exchange for Josh Fields.
LHP John Means of the Baltimore Orioles received 53 points followed by second baseman Brandon Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays, who tallied 27 points in the AL Rookie of the Year voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.