Mariners nemesis' hot bat for Astros brings worst AL West nightmare to life

When the Seattle Mariners finally won their first division title since 2001 last season, many wondered if this signaled them also taking over the mantle as the team to beat in the AL West after a decade of dominance by the Houston Astros. Well, if Yordan Alvarez has anything to do with it, then not so fast.

Sure the Mariners have the better overall team and are among the favorites to win the World Series, but you write the Astros off at your peril. They're off to a 4-2 start and at the heart of this is a revitalized Alvarez, who was mostly a non-factor last year and not his usual self in the box.

In fairness to the three-time All-Star, he was compromised by several injuries including a small fracture in the fourth metacarpal, which limited him to just 48 games in total last year. Now though he's healthy and leading the majors with 19 total bases ahead of Wednesday's slate of action, going 8-for-21 with two doubles and three home runs.

If Alvarez truly is back and stays healthy, then that's going to be a big problem for the Mariners, because the Astros are a much better team when he's fully functional. Between 2022-24 he was one of the most dominant and feared hitters in all of baseball, among other thing ranking fourth with a .303 batting average, third with a .988 OPS and second with a 174 wRC+ among all qualifying players.

Mariners fans should be nervous about other Astros bats also heating up early

As if this isn't enough to make Mariners fans feel slightly nervous, other Astros hitters are also showing signs of life, most notably Jose Altuve and Christian Walker. The duo had a terrible 2025 which saw them combine for just a 0.7 bWAR, but if they're also back to their best — especially seven-time Silver Slugger Altuve — this could really shake things up in the AL West.

At the risk of piling it on for a Mariners fanbase which doesn't exactly need any excuse to fear the worst given their history, lets not forget that as well as Alvarez, the Astros were ravaged by injuries last year and yet still managed to win 87 games. Perhaps best highlighting that this was still an extremely talented team, they finished third in the majors with 70 quality starts despite only two members of their rotation starting more than 14 games.

The Mariners have evolved into one of the model franchises in baseball, highlighted by a consistency which has them as one of just four Major League Baseball teams to win 85-plus games in each of the past five seasons. However, keep in mind that the Astros are one of the other three teams to also achieve this feat. Seattle, you have been warned.