Yordan Álvarez eventually got traded but not before some confusion
It happens to the best of us. People make mistakes and even if you are Farhan Zaidi, a former General Manager for the Dodgers, and this mistake almost had Yordan Álvarez stay on the Dodgers.
Well not quite, Álvarez was on the verge of being traded anyways, but Zaidi thought Astros President of Operations Jeff Lunhow was talking about a different player in Yadier Álvarez (via Jorge Castillo, Los Angeles Times).
“Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ president of baseball operations at the time, sent a text to Farhan Zaidi, then the Dodgers’ general manager, asking whether “Y. Alvarez” was on the table, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Zaidi thought Luhnow meant Yadier Álvarez, a pitcher from Cuba they had signed for $16 million less than a year earlier. The reply was a resounding no. But Luhnow was asking about Yordan, not Yadier.”
One simple mishap was almost enough to completely throw off the deal, but Yordan eventually found his way on the Astros roster after a brief moment with the Dodgers organization academy in the Dominican Republic in 2016. Yordan has been playing in the majors since 2019 and this season earned his first All-Star appearance in his career.
All that’s left for the Dodgers now is what could have been, but instead Dodgers fans get to watch the Astros in the World Series with a guy who was once apart of their roster once upon a time. It took awhile, but Yordan is now one of the best hitters in baseball finishing the regular season with 37 home runs and 97 RBI’s.