Astros find fracture in Yordan Alvarez's right hand, delaying slugger's return from IL
The Houston Astros hoped slugger Yordan Alvarez might be activated from the injured list this weekend. However, he'll be sidelined for a longer period after imaging exams found a fracture in his right hand that was originally diagnosed as inflammation.
Alvarez, 27, was placed on the IL on May 5 (retroactive to May 3) with right hand inflammation. That was believed to be a factor in a subpar season during which the three-time All-Star is batting only .210/.306/.340 with 3 home runs, 4 doubles and 18 RBI. Those numbers are far below his career .295/.387/.573 average with four consecutive seasons of 31 or more homers.
Advertisement
After Alvarez took batting practice against two minor league pitchers on Friday, the Astros were encouraged enough to believe he might return to the lineup.
'It went really well,' Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters. 'He hit some balls out of the ballpark, he hit some balls the other way. He said he felt good, so we'll see where this takes us. I think this is a step in the right direction.'
However, Alvarez said he still felt discomfort in the hand, so the Astros sent him for further imaging. The fracture was then discovered. Astros general manager Dana Brown said the fracture was "60 percent healed," but Alvarez would be shut down from hitting as a result.
Apparently, the fracture wasn't originally visible through imaging exams because of the swelling in Alvarez's hand. Only after the inflammation subsided could the break be seen.
Advertisement
"Obviously I was very excited," Alvarez said to reporters through a translator. "I thought that was going to be the avenue for my return. But I was uncomfortable and wasn't feeling good. And that's where we took the decision."
The seven-year veteran added that trying to play through the injury may have caused further damage, including the fracture.
Alvarez's diminished performance and subsequent absence has hurt the Astros' production at designated hitter and left field, the two positions he typically plays during a season. Houston has gotten a .239/.309/.383 average with 7 home runs and 25 RBI from the DH spot and a .233/.293/.353 line with 6 homers and 23 RBI from left field.
Without Alvarez, the Astros have gone 15-11 and managed to take first place in the American League West, holding a half-game lead over the Seattle Mariners going into Saturday's MLB schedule.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
12 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Batter up! Things to know as NCAA baseball tournament enters super regionals
Super regionals are the next stop on the NCAA baseball tournament's Road to Omaha. Four of the best-of-three series are Friday through Sunday: Miami (34-25) at Louisville (38-21); No. 9 national seed Florida State (41-14) at No. 8 Oregon State (45-13-1); Arizona (42-18) at No. 5 North Carolina (45-13); and No. 13 Coastal Carolina (51-11) at No. 4 Auburn (41-18). The four series Saturday through Monday: UTSA (47-13) at No. 15 UCLA (45-16); Murray State (42-14) at Duke (40-19); West Virginia (44-14) at No. 6 LSU (46-15); and No. 14 Tennessee (46-17) at No. 3 Arkansas (46-13). The eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting June 13. SEC flameout The Southeastern Conference advanced only four of its record 13 tournament teams to super regionals. That ratio doesn't cut it when the metrics say you're the most powerful conference and you've produced the last five national champions, 10 of the last 15 and have had a team in 14 of the last 15 CWS finals. The top two national seeds, Vanderbilt and Texas, are among the nine eliminated SEC teams. Since 2009, the SEC has failed to get fewer than half its qualifiers through regionals only four times but never fewer than a third until this year. ACC on the rise The Atlantic Coast Conference tied the record it set last year with five of its tournament teams making it through regionals. Miami-Louisville is the only all-ACC super regional, so the league is in position to send four teams to the CWS for a second straight year. North Carolina is 13-3 since April 27 and has one of the best feel-good stories in ACC pitcher of the year Jake Knapp, who missed 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Florida State, in supers for a record 19th time, has one of the top offensive players in .400 hitter Alex Lodise. Duke has a 40-win season for the second straight year and third time overall, all under Chris Pollard. Miami is in its first super regional since 2016 after winning at Southern Mississippi as the No. 3 regional seed. Louisville lost six of seven games before going 3-0 in the Nashville Regional. Defending champs alive Defending national champion Tennessee will be playing in its fifth straight super regional, but this year has not been a smooth ride. The Volunteers are 26-17 since starting 20-0. Despite losing key pieces from the 60-win title team to the MLB draft, they remain one of the nation's most talented teams. Look at these lefties The super regionals will feature three left-handers who are projected as the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 picks in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, according to Jim Callis. Tennessee's Liam Doyle (10-3, 2.84) leads the country with 158 strikeouts and pitched nine innings over two appearances in regionals with 16Ks. LSU's Kade Anderson (9-1, 3.28) has 156 strikeouts and is coming off seven shutout innings with 11 Ks against Dallas Baptist. Florida State's Jamie Arnold (8-2, 3.12) struck out 13 in seven innings against Mississippi State. Van Horn's home stretch? Arkansas is the highest remaining national seed and its matchup with Tennessee is sure to draw the most eyes. The Razorbacks won two of three at home against Tennessee three weeks ago. A national title is about all that's missing from the resume of 23rd-year coach Dave Van Horn. The Razorbacks have a nation-leading 379 wins since 2017 and were a dropped foul ball away from the 2018 championship. They'll be playing for an eighth CWS appearance under Van Horn, and this could be his last best chance to win the title if he makes it to Omaha. While shaking hands with retiring Creighton coach Ed Servais after the regional final, the 64-year-old Van Horn told him, 'I'm not too far behind you.' Those lovable Racers With apologies to UTSA, Murray State earned the lovable underdog label by joining 2023 Oral Roberts and 2024 Evansville as No. 4 regional seeds to make supers. Murray State beat No. 10 national seed Mississippi to become the 10th advancing No. 4 regional seed since 1999. Afterward, the Racers tweaked the SEC about the league's 'It Just Means More' slogan, posting on X, 'It Just Meant More.' The Missouri Valley Conference's Racers scored 42 runs over four regional games and have won 27 of their last 32. About the Roadrunners UTSA, like Murray State, is a team nobody wants to face right now. The Roadrunners earned their first NCAA bid since 2013 and beat the big-brother Longhorns on back-to-back days to make their first super regional. UTSA entered the season 6-26 all-time against the Longhorns but went 3-0 against them this season. Chants are back The hottest team in the nation is Coastal Carolina, which is in its first super regional since the 2016 Chanticleers won the championship under Gary Gilmore. Kevin Schnall, an assistant on the title team, took over for Gilmore this year and has the Chants poised to make another run. They've won 21 straight, have the nation's best winning percentage (.823) and are built on pitching, defense and a versatile offense. Auburn will be a major challenge. The Tigers held a 28-11 scoring margin while going 3-0 in their regional and will host a super regional for the first time under 10th-year coach Butch Thompson. Mountaineers on ascent West Virginia's only super regional appearances have come in back-to-back years. The Mountaineers were swept at North Carolina in Randy Mazey's final season. Steve Sabins picked up where Mazey left off and led the Mountaineers to their first Big 12 regular-season title and a program-record 44 wins. They regained their mojo in regionals, going 3-0 in two games against Kentucky and one against host Clemson. They had entered the tournament off losses in nine of their previous 13 games. Ghosts of the Pac-12 The legacy of the Pac-12 is alive and well with Oregon State, Arizona and UCLA in super regionals. Oregon State is playing two seasons as a baseball independent while it waits for the Pac-12 to reactivate July 1, 2026. The Beavers notably played only 19 regular-season games at home because of scheduling difficulties. They would end up playing eight postseason games in Corvallis if their series with FSU goes three games. Arizona, now in the Big 12, is in its first super regional since 2016. UCLA, now in the Big Ten, is in supers for the first time since 2019, when it got knocked out by Michigan as the No. 1 national seed. Home field advantage Since the tournament went to its current format in 1999, the team hosting a super regional on its home field has won 69.5% of the time. That's 137 of 197 and does not include three series that were played at neutral sites.
Politico
22 minutes ago
- Politico
Stefanik's run for governor gets serious
Presented by Resorts World New York City THE NEXT GOV? IT COULD BE ELISE… CAPEESH?: She's serious about running. Upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik said today she's 'criss-crossing the state' and 'putting the pieces together' to launch a run for governor — and she took a thinly veiled swing at Rep. Mike Lawler while doing it. 'We need to save New York, and I'm taking a very strong look,' she said in a conversation about a potential run with conservative talk radio host Sid Rosenberg. 'I'm going to make a decision in the coming months.' Stefanik is the longest serving member of New York's Republican congressional delegation, and one of the most pro-Trump representatives out there. But her once-soaring celebrity in Washington became the stuff of tragicomedy after she gave up a top House leadership post to become President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — only to have Trump crush her hopes and tell her he changed his mind. Fearing Stefanik's ascent to the U.N. would put the House GOP's razor-thin majority at risk by forcing a special election for her seat, Trump decided to hand the U.N. role to a dude who got canned after he shared war secrets on Signal to a magazine journalist. So she started teasing a run for governor instead. And today, it got serious. She noted Republicans need a staunchly pro-Trump candidate to run for the statehouse this year — an implicit shot at Lawler, who represents the Hudson Valley and has stood up to Trump over his proposed cap on SALT in the tax bill and plans to gut Planned Parenthood's funding. 'I have the strongest relationship with President Trump in the delegation,' she said in the radio interview this morning. 'He was able to surge New York turnout. We are going to need those Trump voters, and it needs to be a candidate who excites those voters and is a close ally of President Trump.' Lawler's team declined to comment on Stefanik's remarks. He has said he will decide if he is running for governor sometime in June. The state's Democratic Party is capitalizing off the remark. 'Elise Stefanik is making it crystal clear: the GOP primary is about Donald Trump, not New York,' party spokesperson Addison Dick said. The comments from Stefanik came after she gave a rousing speech Monday night to the Staten Island GOP, where Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis signaled she would endorse Stefanik for the post: 'I believe that Elise Stefanik would make a great governor because she would reinstate common sense, put public safety first and make New York affordable once again,' Malliotakis said during the event. Unlike MAGA-star Stefanik, Lawler has tried to build his brand as the Republican who can win over the swing votersand suburbanites needed to secure victory in a governor's race in deep-blue New York. Last year, he handily won reelection in a district that voted decisively for Biden. Leading up to the presidential election, he was lurching at every opportunity to criticize Gov. Kathy Hochul as he teased a run for governor, even buying the website to take a swing at her decision to unpause the controversial Manhattan toll program. But Trump poured cold water on a potential gubernatorial run after he endorsed Lawler for reelection to Congress — instead of governor. During her radio interview, Stefanik also highlighted a new problem for Gov. Kathy Hochul as she wades closer to the 2026 campaign trail: her Lieutenant Governor's decision to run against her will be used against her. 'That is supposed to be her closest political ally,' Stefanik said of Antonio Delgado, who announced a primary run Monday, during the radio interview. 'That is how much she has failed the state of New York. She is a feckless, failed leader … So we are putting the pieces together. If we do this, this will be the most well-funded, the most well-organized statewide campaign since when we last won with George Pataki.' Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a staunchly pro-Trump Republican who's also close to Trump, is a potential Republican nominee for governor as well. Don't bet on a GOP primary showdown, though. State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox has made it clear he doesn't want one. And Stefanik said this morning she has a good relationship with both Blakeman and Lawler. 'It is going to be a little bit more difficult than in 2022 than Lee Zeldin had,' Cox said in April, referring to former Rep. Lee Zeldin's failed 2022 gubernatorial run. 'On the other hand, he had a very difficult primary that got in his way. This time, we are not going to have a primary.' — Jason Beeferman DEBATE TOMORROW NIGHT: POLITICO is proud to co-host the live mayoral debate with WNBC and Telemundo on TV and online Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Andrew Cuomo will be smack dab in the middle of the nine candidates on stage after positioning was set for the first official debate of the Democratic primary. The spots were randomly selected, but center stage makes sense for the ex-governor — who has skipped every previous forum where candidates appeared side-by-side. — Jeff Coltin FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL NY-17 ROCKLAND COUNTY DINER BEEF: A planned meeting of Rockland County's top party leaders in a New City diner is rankling local Democrats and a primary candidate poised to compete for Lawler's Hudson Valley seat. Rockland County Democratic Committee Chair Laurence Toole sent out an invitation last week to fellow Democrats for a Wednesday meeting in New City's CityLine Family Restaurant, where party leaders were expected to discuss who they plan to support for Congress. But some local party officials, like Orangetown Democratic Committee Chair Liza Barrie, were left off the list. Now Barrie and one primary candidate are making noise, arguing the closed-door convention was a premature ploy to endorse Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson — an early favorite to win the party's endorsement in the six-person primary in Lawler's district — without the inclusion of the full county party. 'Let's be clear: an insider endorsement this far out, absent any public deliberation or voter engagement, is an affront to the democratic process,' Barrie said in an email she circulated widely, attempting to get ahead of the meeting. 'It sidelines voters. It shuts out committee members. It hollows out trust in our institutions at the exact moment we need to be building it.' Barrie leads one of the five Democratic Committees that make up the Rockland Democratic Party. Rockland County makes up a large portion of Lawler's district. Former FBI analyst John Sullivan, who is running against Davidson in the primary, also criticized the gathering: 'With nearly 17 years of service keeping our country safe at the FBI, John Sullivan knows a lot about keeping secrets, but it seems strange for a local party committee to be running a top secret endorsement process,' his campaign manager, Nick Mattes, said in a statement. 'Regardless, when John meets with voters, they aren't asking him what political insiders think about candidates.' Davidson and Toole did not respond to requests for comment. — Jason Beeferman From City Hall ICED OUT AGAIN: A state judge extended a ban on federal immigration officials at Rikers Island today. The ruling deals another blow to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and top officials working for President Donald Trump, who hoped to collaborate on immigration enforcement at the city's notorious jail complex but have been stymied by the courts. 'The restraining order is extended until I issue my decision on the application,' Judge Mary Rosado said during a state Supreme Court hearing in Manhattan. The judge is currently mulling a request from the New York City Council to forbid the city from working with the Trump administration for the duration of the court case. She said today she expects to reach a decision on that matter within roughly a week. Ultimately, the Council is seeking to prevent the joint effort altogether. In April, lawmakers filed a lawsuit arguing City Hall's directive allowing federal immigration authorities onto Rikers was part of a corrupt quid pro quo between the mayor and the Trump administration. Attorneys retained by the city disputed that notion and said the executive order was above board. — Joe Anuta IN OTHER NEWS NADLER WRITES TO JORDAN: Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are calling on chair Jim Jordan to condemn the detainment of a Congressional aide by Department of Homeland Security authorities. A staffer for Rep. Jerry Nadler — the former senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel — was handcuffed in the member's district office last week amid protests outside the building, which is also home to an immigration courthouse. DHS claimed the aide, who was never arrested, was briefly detained as part of a larger security check to protect federal employees. But in their letter to Jordan today, Nadler and Rep. Jamie Raskin — the current ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee — argued the staffer's detainment followed a pattern of threatening actions by the Trump administration. They urged Jordan to call DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to testify before the committee regarding her agency's posture. 'These types of intimidation tactics are completely unwarranted and cannot be tolerated,' the lawmakers wrote to Jordan. Spokespeople for Jordan and Noem did not return requests for comment. — Hailey Fuchs — WE STAND WITH YOU, GOV: A trove of electeds raced to endorse Hochul after Delgado announced a primary challenge. (City & State) — BUFFALO MAYOR RACE: State Sen. Sean Ryan nabbed the endorsement of Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz in his bid to be the mayor of the state's second biggest city. (WIVB) — CUOMO COORDINATION: A watchdog group is pressing regulators to investigate Cuomo over alleged illegal coordination with a lobbying firm. (POLITICO) Missed this morning's New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Celtics' Jayson Tatum named to All-NBA First Team for the fourth time. What it means
Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics has been named to the 2024-25 All-NBA First Team. After an impressive season averaging 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6 assists, the Celtics forward was unanimously selected for the First Team by all 100 voters. Advertisement This year marks the fourth time in a row that Tatum has been named to the selective team, an achievement only seen by the Celtics once before in Larry Bird. Tatum is now the fifth Celtics player ever to receive the First Team honors at least four times, joining Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, John Havlicek and Bill Sharman. "Congratulations to Jayson on his All-NBA selection," said Brad Stevens Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations, in a press release. "To be honored five years in a row, with four First-Team selections, speaks to his dedication and drive to be amongst the game's best. He's a great teammate and player, and is deserving of all the accolades that come his way." What is the All-NBA First Team? May 10, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives to the basket in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks during game three of the second round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images One of various annual postseason NBA awards, All-NBA First Team recognizes the five best players in the league, regardless of position. Players must have played in at least 65 games that season to be eligible for All-NBA awards. Advertisement The first, second and third All-NBA teams are chosen by a panel of 100 voters, with players receiving points based off of votes. At the end of voting, the five players with the most points are named to the first team, then the next five to the second team and the next five to the third team. Tatum injury update: Jayson Tatum posted a hospital selfie after his Achilles surgery. What he said Who else is on the 2024-25 All-NBA First Team? Tatum joins Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell on the 2024-25 Kia All-NBA First Team. Advertisement Antetokounmpo, Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić all received unanimous nominations like Tatum. This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: All-NBA Honors: Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum makes First Team
