DENVER \u2014 Tuesday should\u2019ve been a seismic day in Yordan Alvarez\u2019s drawn-out recovery from a hand fracture. Houston Astros officials hoped he would \u201cramp it up\u201d against live pitching at the team\u2019s spring training facility, putting Alvarez in position for a return within the week.<\/p>\n
Instead, a setback sapped the optimism and put Alvarez\u2019s immediate future in peril. The three-time All-Star designated hitter reported more hand soreness to officials and will be shut down from baseball activities, Astros general manager Dana Brown said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Alvarez is scheduled to see a hand specialist Wednesday, and, according to Brown, the Astros hope to know more information within the next 48 hours. Alvarez will receive more imaging on his hand, Brown said \u2014 an important declaration given the trajectory of this entire saga.<\/p>\n
Asked if surgery is an option for Alvarez, Brown responded, \u201cIt\u2019s too early to tell right now. I hope not. We\u2019ll know after he sees the specialist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough pill to swallow,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAt the end of the day, his health is the most important thing here. We\u2019ll let him take the time that he needs to get completely healed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarez has not played in a game since May 2.<\/p>\n
The Astros initially described his injury as a muscle strain in the top of his right hand, but on May 31 discovered a \u201csmall fracture\u201d near the fourth metacarpal.<\/p>\n
Alvarez took batting practice on the field at Daikin Park prior to Sunday\u2019s 2-0 win against the Chicago Cubs. That afternoon, Alvarez flew to the team\u2019s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he was scheduled to face some of the team\u2019s rehabbing pitchers in live batting practice sessions.<\/p>\n
According to Brown, Alvarez took some swings against live pitching Monday afternoon, though the day was more designed for him to track pitches after such a prolonged absence. Tuesday \u201cwas really the big day where he was going to ramp it up even more,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
Instead, Brown sat atop a bench at Coors Field delivering another round of dismal news. Houston\u2019s 34-19 record in Alvarez\u2019s absence somewhat softens the blow, but questions of how sustainable the success is are real. Resurgent shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a just landed on the injured list with a rib fracture, while four other position players \u2014 Chas McCormick, Zach Dezenzo, Jacob Melton and Brendan Rodgers \u2014 have been there for weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to get back,\u201d said manager Joe Espada, who spoke with Alvarez after the latest setback. \u201cHe\u2019s doing everything in his power to get back. He\u2019s staying optimistic, and I\u2019m staying optimistic with him. We just have to give some time and hopefully this hand heals and we get him back in our lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team hoped to activate Alvarez during the team\u2019s upcoming home series against the Cleveland Guardians, Brown said. Team officials even held out faint hope that Alvarez could return during this weekend\u2019s series at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s a mystery when \u2014 or if \u2014 Alvarez will reappear in the Astros\u2019 lineup this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThis is certainly news that we didn\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Steph Chambers \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Tuesday should\u2019ve been a seismic day in Yordan Alvarez\u2019s drawn-out recovery from a hand fracture. Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2084,2382,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-31210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-fantasy-baseball","9":"tag-houston-astros","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114780816609225939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}