What you expect from a slugger

There is something that you have probably also asked yourself at some point: Will Yordan Álvarez become the Cuban hitter with the most home runs in MLB? Of course, to achieve this, he would have to surpass the 569 home runs that Rafael Palmeiro hit.

Palmeiro played 20 seasons. Yordan, 27, is playing his sixth season, although we could basically say it has been five, since in 2020 he played only two games and an injury took him out for the rest of the season. We'll return to Yordan in a few minutes. Palmeiro began his career at age 21, playing for the 1986 Cubs, but he recorded his first season with at least 30 home runs at age 28. It was in 1993, when he hit 37 home runs in his fifth season with the Texas Rangers. That year, when he finished June, Palmeiro had hit only 13 home runs in his first 309 plate appearances.

Facing left-handed pitchers was a problem for him all year. But then, after the All-Star Game, Palmeiro took an impressive turn: he hit 11 home runs in July, eight in August and five in Sept/Oct.