Delayed only by defensive questions and service time tinkering, Yordan Álvarez's improbable ascent of the Houston baseball hierarchy reached its apex on June 9. He saw four pitches as a major league hitter before announcing his arrival.

Against Orioles righthander Dylan Bundy in the fourth inning of a 4-0 win, Álvarez annihilated a changeup to the opposite field.

Television analyst Geoff Blum unleashed a maniacal laugh while the baseball flew through the air. Tales of Álvarez's ambushes on the spring training back fields and in minor league games were legendary. To see it finally manifest on the major league level was a stupendous sight.

"We had very strong conviction that he'd be here and be doing what he's doing," said Oz Ocampo, the Astros' former director of international scouting who now serves as the team interpreter and a special assistant to general manager Jeff Luhnow. "Not to this extent, obviously — so immediately – but we knew he was going to be an impact player at the big league level."

The baseball landed where most home runs do not, over a gas pump and onto the small porch overlooking left-center field at Minute Maid Park. Álvarez rounded the bases, met countryman Yuli Gurriel at home plate and officially began the latest highly anticipated career of an Astros prospect.

Once an afterthought on the international market, Álvarez became an Astro only because of an often forgotten about trade. The massive 22-year-old slugger has since authored a big league debut few in this sport have matched. In his first 12 major league games, Álvarez struck seven home runs and drove in 16 runs.

Manager A.J. Hinch hit him cleanup on his fourth day as a big leaguer. Álvarez rewarded the skipper with a three-hit game that included a home run. He won American League Rookie of the Month honors despite playing only 16 games during June.

With Class AAA Round Rock, Álvarez had 23 home runs in 56 games. Teams began intentionally walking him in fear of facing him. Thirty of his 92 professional hits this season are long balls.

"It is incredible," said Astros pitcher Cy Sneed who was with Álvarez in Round Rock. "I've never seen anything like it. He cooled off before he came up here. But when he's hot, he's hitting 405, 410 (feet). What he was on pace for, he was on pace for 68 home runs in a 140-game season. It was absolutely ridiculous what he was doing."

Hits first, power second

Pigeonholing Álvarez as a power-only player is dangerous. Those who scouted him speak of a hitter far more advanced than most young Latin players. His pitch recognition is refined and poise inordinate for a man his age. Álvarez has seven home runs and 11 extra-base hits — four on breaking balls, four on fastballs and two on off-speed pitches.

Innate ability to connect barrel to baseball allows an abundance of hard contact. Twenty-two of his first 44 big-league balls in play were struck 95 mph or harder.

"He's always been a hit over power guy," said Ocampo. "When you look at his swing and the quality of his contact, he's had that from day one. It's been more about hitting line drives and hitting the ball hard and not about trying to hit it over the fence. He's always had that consistently ... it's always been hit and then power. Power would come because of the quality of contact and the strength and physicality."

Many heralded Houston prospects have arrived with similar fanfare. Almost all have failed to fulfill it. Whether Álvarez can buck the recent norm is still a mystery. Sixty-nine major league plate appearances are not enough to draw grandiose conclusions. Álvarez must maintain his production to prove he is more than just a one-month wonder.

"It's my personality to be calm and levelheaded," Álvarez said this week through Ocampo, his interpreter. "I've worked really hard to get to this point, and in that sense, nothing really surprises me."

An easy transition

Álvarez never considered leaving Cuba. When he was 15, a trip to an international tournament allowed him to meet and converse with Venezuelan and Mexican players with major league dreams.

"We started talking about baseball in the U.S., and at that point I realized, 'Oh, maybe there is a possibility of playing in the U.S.,' " Álvarez said. "It just went from there."

Defecting Cuban ballplayers must leave their home country and establish residency elsewhere before signing with a major league team. Álvarez started his journey in the Dominican Republic, boarded a "very small plane," and ended up in Haiti during 2016.

Álvarez made an appointment with Haitian immigration officials to begin the process of procuring a passport. On the day he arrived, he stood in line. One other countryman was present.

"When I saw him," Yuli Gurriel said, "I was like, 'Oh my God.'"

Gurriel and his brother, Lourdes, are part of Cuban baseball royalty. Their clandestine escape from the national team hotel at that year's Carribean Series sent shockwaves through the country. The brothers kept their location a secret. Álvarez was now clued in.

"Don't tell anybody that I'm here," Yuli told him.

"Yeah," replied the 19-year-old Álvarez. "Of course I won't tell anybody."

The two players had never met in person. Three years later, they share a major league clubhouse. Gurriel marvels at Álvarez's seamless assimilation into the Astros culture, a process the 34-year-old first baseman unknowingly has aided.

The Cuban contingent is a tightknit group. Aledmys Diaz was among the first players to reach out on the day Álvarez was called up.

"When I knew him, I knew he was going to be a big prospect, but I didn't know he was going to get to the big leagues so quickly and have the impact that he's had so quickly," Gurriel said through an interpreter. "He's changed a lot from one year to the next."

One fact remains the same, Gurriel said. Álvarez does not talk. Banter in Spanish between he and Latin teammates is brief. Myles Straw, a longtime minor league teammate, connected with Álvarez early in their careers at Buies Creek in the Carolina League. The speedster speaks rough Spanish. Álvarez's English is basic, too.

"He's definitely goofy. He's got some goofy to him," Straw said. "Once he gets to know you, like me and Yuli, he'll say whatever. He jokes around a lot and is a good guy to talk to him. It's never boring with him."

The aura around him remains unmistakable. Fans applaud each announcement of his name and expect excitement each time he bats. The Astros list him at only 6-5, 225 pounds. One look at him reveals the silliness of such a claim.

Álvarez is at least two years younger than any of his Astros teammates and says next to nothing when seated among them. He is a stoic slugger in every sense.

"He's never been a big talker," said Astros senior scouting adviser Charlie Gonzalez. "But he kind of knows what he wants."

Astros miss first chance to sign Álvarez

Gonzalez got a head start on every other major league team and first alerted the Astros of Álvarez's existence. The veteran scout patrols the Cuban market and sees the Astros' top draft picks. He's worked with Luhnow since 2005, dating back to his days in St. Louis.

Gonzalez remains one of the sole reasons Álvarez is even in the organization. A preexisting relationship with Álvarez's agent allowed Gonzalez a first look at the revolutionary rookie. It was somewhere in Florida — St. Petersburg, Dunedin, some city that the passage of time has faded.

"He had the big, raw power," Gonzalez said. "He had the beautiful, Fred McGriff-type looking swing. It's a really balanced swing. He uses his hips. They're engaged, with the bat speed and all that."

Gonzalez set up some private workouts with Álvarez, but he can't discern much from those. Live situations serve as separators, Gonzalez said, between "guys who are just a toolbox — and they're not really a baseball player — and the guys that are real."

"I saw Yordan one time take a ball right under his chin at about 95 mph," Gonzalez said. "He just kind of moved his head back casually. It was about Adam's-apple high. He just kind of tilts his head back a little bit.

"The next pitch, you're thinking, 'He's going to bail out. He's got no shot.' And he just hung in there, very poised with his clock and his demeanor.

"You can get guys that have bat speed, you can get guys that have big raw power. And they're speeding the game up and going 100 mph in the box. They don't have that thing that holds it all together. And the good ones do."

Gonzalez grew closer with Álvarez, who informed the scout he had eyes on an apartment in West Palm Beach, Fla., within four or five blocks of the spring training facility the Astros would begin using in 2017.

Álvarez was eligible to be signed during the 2015-16 international signing period.

"He would call me twice a week. 'Let's go hit. Let's do this. Make sure you take me,' " Gonzalez recalled. "He said, 'You gotta take me. You gotta take me.' "

But that decision was not up to Gonzalez. The scout first fed information back to Ocampo. Ocampo never saw Álvarez in person during the process, relying solely on video and Gonzalez's trusted intel.

"He became a pretty clear target for us," Ocampo said. "Just an athletic, young kid with a great, deluxe body and a beautiful swing. He always had a great swing. The ball was jumping off the bat. Very level with a ton of contact.

"He just has the innate ability to just center the ball consistently (and) the plate discipline at being able to identify pitches, identify whether those are balls or strikes. Having that at such a young age, early, that is an innate ability. And he had it. And it's rare for young, Latin prospects to have that. He had it in spades."

Convinced the Astros needed to pursue Álvarez during the international signing period, Ocampo and Gonzalez pitched the prospect to Luhnow. All were aware the Dodgers were in pursuit and willing to extend a lucrative offer.

The Astros, meanwhile, were saving for an anticipated year of big international spending in 2016-17, a year that netted them Cionel Perez and Freudis Nova.

Teams that exceed their international signing bonus pool are penalized during the next year's signing period. Doing so in 2015-16 would have sabotaged the plan.

"We were actually hoping he'd roll over to the next signing class so we could use the money from the new signing year," Luhnow said. "Didn't happen, and then we kind of knew the Dodgers were going to put a big number out there. We let him go."

The Dodgers paid Álvarez $2 million, according to reports at the time. Because they'd gone over their bonus allotment, there was a 100 percent tax, so the final tally was $4 million.

"Charlie and I advocated for this player as if he were our own son," Ocampo said. "We loved this guy. And we wanted to sign him. And we knew he checked every single box that we were looking for from a prospect perspective.

"When he checks all the boxes and you have the opportunity to sign him, what you want to do is get him on board and get him to your team. And on top of that, we loved him. We had a great relationship with him. He wanted to be an Astro. So knowing all those factors, it was really disappointing when we did not sign him."

Asked about the ordeal this week, Álvarez was diplomatic. He said he "was not thinking of any team" during the signing period. He appreciated the Dodgers giving him an opportunity. He reported to their facility in the Dominican Republic.

A trade for the other Álvarez

Six weeks later, Gonzalez sat at the East Coast Pro, an annual Southern baseball showcase in Hoover, Ala. The sting of losing Álvarez was tough, he said, but a part of scouting and a reality of baseball.

His cellphone rang. Luhnow informed his scout the team was in deep discussions with the Dodgers about a trade for reliever Josh Fields. Did he have anyone in mind?

'What do I got?" Gonzalez exclaimed. "Are you kidding? Is this a cruel joke?"

Five and a half games out of first place in the American League West as July drew to a close, the Astros did nothing of substance at the 2016 trade deadline. Reports from the time suggest the prospect price was too high to incrementally improve the team. Luhnow often prefers not to mortgage his future for a short-term gain.

Hindsight proves Houston was trying to clear its 40-man roster of an unreliable major league reliever with impressive minor league numbers. Fields yielded 23 hits in 15⅔ big league innings that season. His ERA was 6.89.

Two or three other clubs, in addition to the Dodgers, expressed interest. Luhnow asked Los Angeles GM Farhan Zaidi for "three or four" players. All were at full-season affiliates. The Dodgers declined each request.

"We got to the point where, literally, our evaluators were saying, 'That's it. Fields is too valuable to trade for anybody below this line,' " Luhnow said. "Finally, kind of out of options, and I remembered that they'd signed Álvarez."

Luhnow asked Zaidi for Álvarez. Zaidi reacted with incredulity, according to Luhnow, rattling off the large sum of money his franchise just invested in this Cuban player. The Astros general manager was puzzled. He asked Zaidi if perhaps there was another Álvarez in the system.

"Yeah, Zaidi said, "we have a Cuban hitter."

Yadier Álvarez was an 18-year-old Cuban pitcher to whom the Dodgers gave a $16 million signing bonus during the 2014-15 international free agent period. It was, at the time, the second-largest bonus given to an international amateur free agent. Luhnow assumes this was the other Álvarez that Zaidi assumed he was asking for.

Luhnow clarified that he meant Yordan Álvarez. Even when he pitched it, Luhnow acknowledged he "wasn't sure I'd do that deal yet." Yordan Álvarez had not yet played a professional game on American soil. Gonzalez doesn't think he even had a Dodgers jersey.

"I was trying to downplay it," Luhnow said. "(Zaidi) said, 'OK, we may be able to do that.' "

Luhnow called Gonzalez back. Assistant general manager Brandon Taubman listened in.

"Charlie, what would you think if we got you Yordan Álvarez?" Luhnow asked.

"BROOOOO!" Gonzalez yelled. "BROOOOO!"

"He was so excited," Luhnow said. "Brandon still makes fun of him for his bro comment. He was just so excited about it. I said, 'OK, let's do it.' Farhan did it."

Eventually, someone had to inform the player.

"Someone called me from the Dodgers and told me I'd been traded," Yordan Álvarez recalled. "I had no idea what a trade was, so that needed to be explained to me. Once I understood, I knew I was going to the Astros."

At home in Houston

Álvarez departed the Dodgers Dominican academy for the Astros' facility. Gonzales met him.

"He had a big ol' grin on his face at our complex at the (Dominican Republic). We just both had the same look, from 100 feet away, the same look of 'Man, we got it done,'" Gonzales said.

The trade, as of now, is the biggest outright coup of Luhnow's eight-year Astros tenure as general manager. Acquiring Justin Verlander still remains the most meaningful deal in franchise history. It brought the biggest short-term dividend imaginable, a World Series championship.

In Game 2 of that series, Fields surrendered two home runs to his former club. In two and a half seasons as a Dodger, he threw to a 2.61 ERA, and Los Angeles won two pennants with him in the bullpen. He is currently unemployed. The Rangers released him from a minor league contract last month.

Álvarez's long-term future projects as slightly more prodigious. Whether Álvarez-for-Fields ever rivals the 1990 Jeff Bagwell-for-Larry Andersen steal remains to be seen. Should Álvarez's final 2019 slash line approaches the .317/.406/.733 he took into the weekend, he might join the Hall of Famer as a Rookie of the Year honoree.

"I think we all know now he hits the ball stupid hard," Straw said. "Some teams, who knows what they're doing to prepare for that guy? It's pretty hard. He'll lay off close pitches and attack pitches in the zone. To see how advanced he is, it's impressive.

"I've never seen anything like this in person. I'm just glad I'm around to witness it."

Work still remains on Álvarez's defense. Major league pitchers will readjust to his tendencies after a few more weeks in the major leagues. Sustaining the success is the next chapter in Álvarez's career.

"I feel good," Álvarez said, "I feel normal. I feel at home."