MONTERREY, Mexico — Within the Astros front office and fanbase, conversations continue about Yordan Álvarez's absurd start to the minor league season.

Álvarez entered Class AAA Round Rock's game on Saturday with a 1.421 OPS in 87 at-bats, slugging .931 with 12 home runs and 10 doubles. His promotion seems all but inevitable, contingent only on the organization's comfort that the 21-year-old hulking slugger can proficiently patrol left field.

"It's pretty clear he can hit right now in the big leagues," general manager Jeff Luhnow said Saturday. "I think for him to have the maximum impact on this team, we need him to be able to play a position and I do think left field is where he has the best chance to play for us, especially in our ballpark, and he is making strides."

Listed at 6-5 and 225 pounds, Álvarez is "actually a faster person than you would anticipate," according to Luhnow. Routes and reaction times have been slower for Álvarez to grasp in the outfield, Luhnow said, perhaps the only thing holding Álvarez back from a major league call-up.

Roars for that promotion have grown louder, especially as the Astros struggle to find consistent production from either Tyler White or Tony Kemp on their bench. Neither White nor Kemp retains minor league options, though, complicating the decision.

Before the Astros opened their two-game series in Monterrey against the Angels on Saturday, Luhnow offered a "word of caution," invoking Kyle Tucker's terrible introduction into the major leagues last season.

After calling up Tucker — who tore through Class AAA pitching at an almost identical pace to Álvarez — he mustered a .439 OPS in his 72 major league plate appearances. Now, Álvarez appears to have passed him on the organization's outfield pecking order.

"The same people who were clamoring for Kyle Tucker to come up because he was destroying AAA pitching are the same people now clamoring for Yordan Álvarez to come up," Luhnow said. "I understand that, trust me, I love having prospects that fans ask when they're coming up. But there's no exact science about how many at-bats a player needs at various levels."

"If (Álvarez) is coming up, he's coming up to play, and if he comes up and hits .210, that's not going to help our team. I need to make sure he's going to help our team, but he certainly is making it a conversation, not just with our fans, but internally."

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