With the news of a massive extension for Yordan Alvarez on Friday, a trade between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2016 just keeps getting better and better for Houston.
At the 2016 trade deadline, the Houston Astros sent right-handed reliever Josh Fields to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 19-year-old “Cuban minor league infielder/outfielder” (as the press release described him) Yordan Alvarez. However, that deal has turned out much better for the Astros than it did for the Dodgers.
Yordan Alvarez is a constant reminder to the Los Angeles Dodgers of what they could have had in the Houston Astros slugger
It’s not that Fields was bad with the Dodgers during his two-plus regular seasons with the team following the trade. He finished his time at Chavez Ravine with a 2.61 ERA/3.89 FIP/1.040 WHIP in 117.1 innings covering 124 games, but he didn’t make the type of impact that Alvarez has in Houston. Additionally, Fields is remembered by many Dodgers fans as the pitcher who served up back-to-back home runs to Houston’s Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series and didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced. His ERA for that World Series stands at infinity.
That was the last appearance for him in the 2017 World Series or any postseason affair. The Dodgers kept him off their 2018 postseason roster. He was then designated for assignment by the Dodgers on March 7, 2019, and did not pitch in an MLB game again.
Not only did the Astros get the best of Fields in the 2017 World Series, but they also got the best of the Dodgers in the years following the trade as well. Alvarez joined the Astros on June 9, 2019, and would slash .313/.412/.655 the rest of the season, earning American League Rookie of the Year honors.
The 24-year-old Alvarez has turned that into a career .287/.370/.576 slash line with 75 home runs and an OPS+ of 154. That was enough for the Astros to strike early and sign him to a six-year, $115 million contract extension, even though he wouldn’t become a free agent until after the 2025 campaign. As ESPN’s Jeff Passan mentioned in this tweet, it is the biggest contract ever for a designated hitter and shows just how valuable the Astros believe he is to the future of the franchise.
In a rivalry between the Astros and Dodgers that some say is the best in all of baseball, Houston can thank Los Angeles for trading them what is now one of the cornerstones of their franchise for years to come.