Yordan Alvarez, 500 RBI, and the Ride That Started It

The Ride

When Dodgers staff told a 19-year-old Yordan Alvarez he'd been traded to the Astros in August 2016, he thought they were firing him. He didn't understand trades. He packed his things, walked outside the academy, and waited for a ride the Astros had forgotten to arrange. A minivan eventually came and took him to the Houston complex. He had not yet played a single minor-league game.

Five Hundred

On April 3, 2026, Alvarez collected his 500th career RBI. He has pushed the total to 581 since. The number was built across eight seasons, all in Houston — 800 games, 206 home runs, a .300 average and a .976 OPS from the left side of the plate. He debuted in June 2019 and won the Jackie Robinson AL Rookie of the Year that same year. By 2021 he was the ALCS MVP. A year later he had a World Series ring and a Silver Slugger. Jose Altuve has called him the best pure hitter he has ever seen.

Las Tunas

Alvarez was born in Las Tunas, Cuba, in 1997, and grew up in the countryside of the province, where he walked barefoot, fished for tilapia in the local river, and hunted doves with a slingshot because rifles were a luxury. He played two seasons in the Cuban National Series for Las Tunas before defecting and establishing residency in Haiti. The Dodgers signed him for $2 million in 2016; two months later they sent him to Houston for reliever Josh Fields.

After he defected, years passed without his family seeing him play in person. His parents, Agustín and Mailyn, and his younger brother Yonder finally made it to Minute Maid Park in 2022 — the year Alvarez won the World Series. He still hunts on Texas ranches and finds peace on fishing boats near Houston.

Reporting: The Athletic, MLB.com, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.