The Buzz — Thursday, August 20

Yordan Alvarez

The take Alvarez clear No. 1 on fresh MLB.com hitter power rankings

He has held the No. 1 spot in consecutive MLB.com Hitter Power Rankings — August 6 and August 20 — and the case for moving him off it would require finding a category he is not currently winning. Alvarez leads the American League in batting average (.318), home runs (36), RBIs (88), on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, and total bases — 276 of them in 450 at-bats.

At the August 7 checkpoint he was pacing all of baseball in average and home runs, and no MLB player has completed a Triple Crown since Mickey Mantle in 1956. The panel that made him an easy No. 1 two weeks ago still had him first this week, because nothing in between changed the picture.

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Brandon Lowe

The take Walk-off HR beats Tigers in all the MLB highlights

His 27th home run of the season clanged high off the right-field foul pole at PNC Park and ended a game the Pirates were losing when the ninth inning started. The shot makes Lowe the single-season home run leader among second basemen in Pittsburgh franchise history — a record set in his first year with the club.

Kenley Jansen was on the mound for both ninth-inning blows. Rafael Flores Jr. tied it with a solo shot one out earlier — the first Pirates player since at least 1900 to hit two home runs in a game he did not start — and Lowe finished it. The highlight will run as the swing that ended it; the bench player who made it possible is the other half of the story.

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Munetaka Murakami

The take Huge oppo HR plus rise in MLB hitter power rankings

The ball traveled 440 feet to left-center at Wrigley Field and struck the bottom of the Wintrust video board — 111.1 mph off the bat, the third-longest opposite-field home run of 2026. MLB.com moved him two spots to No. 7 in its Hitter Power Rankings. Twenty-nine homers and a .917 OPS say the ranking is earned. A .234 average and a whiff rate in the 1st percentile are the cost — the power is genuine, the swing-and-miss is permanent, and the ranking is betting one is worth the other.

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Pete Alonso

The take Alonso on hot August tear with hit streak, enters rankings

Two weeks ago he was outside the MLB.com Hitter Power Rankings. He is No. 4 in the new edition, and the entry is not a gift — it is a 1.109 OPS in August that forced the panel's hand.

Alonso extended his hitting streak to 11 games with his 29th home run on August 19 against the Yankees. The week before, he was named AL Player of the Week: 12-for-22 with a .630 on-base percentage and .864 slugging over six games. This is not a flash. It is a slugger who has hit .289 with 24 home runs in 95 games since a slow March and April, getting the recognition the last three months earned him.

His last 15 games: .386 with six home runs. Last seven: .444 with three. A .267 average and 82 RBIs on the season is the floor underneath the streak, and the Orioles — in the AL Wild Card mix — are getting the bat they signed for at exactly the time they needed it. The ranking is the panel arriving late to a season that was already here.

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Alec Burleson

The take Breakout year leads MLB doubles and RBIs, joins hitter rankings

Burleson entered Wednesday leading the Majors with 33 doubles and 92 RBIs. The breakout framing is right — four years ago he posted a .535 OPS in a cup of coffee, and he has climbed every season since to the .847 mark he carries now.

The doubles tell the story — 21 home runs is real power, but 33 leading baseball means the gap-to-gap contact is what shows up every night, and 140 hits in 485 at-bats confirms the volume. The split is the caveat: .329 against right-handers, and the numbers against lefties are why the overall line is very good rather than something more. The ranking is right to flag him; the platoon split is right to hold him there.

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