The Triple Crown in the baseball world is a bit of an old-school feat, but it is a feat that very rarely happens these days, nonetheless. No hitter has won a Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera pulled it off in 2012. Cabrera's feat was the first since 1967. A Triple Crown is leading your respective league in batting average, home runs and RBI. As noted, it's a bit old school because batting average isn't the most preferred rate stat and people have also shifted attention away from RBI.
Still, it's really cool to track when someone is close, and Astros outfielder and AL MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez has a real shot as the 2026 season winds down.
Heading into the penultimate weekend of the 2026 MLB season, here are the leaderboards, with Alvarez sitting in the top two of each category.
AL batting average leaders
1. Yordan Alvarez, Astros: .311 (.311444)
2. Chandler Simpson, Rays: .311 (.310661)
3. Yandy Díaz, Rays: .295
AL home run runs
1. Junior Caminero, Rays, 41
2. Yordan Alvarez, Astros, 40
3. Ben Rice, Yankees, 38
4. Pete Alonso, Orioles, 37
AL RBI leaders
1. Pete Alonso, Orioles, 102
2. Yordan Alvarez, Astros, 99
3. Junior Caminero, Rays, 96
4. Jo Adell, Guardians, 92
5. Ben Rice, Yankees, 92
As illustrated, all are tight races. It's possible Alvarez ends up leading the AL in none of the three categories, but he's right on the precipice of having a lead in all three.
Coincidentally, the last six Triple Crown winners in MLB have all been on the AL side. No National League player has won the Triple Crown since Hall of Famer Joe "Ducky" Medwick in 1937. Since then, the AL has seen Ted Williams (1942 and 1947), Mickey Mantle (1956), Frank Robinson (1966), Carl Yastrzemski (1967) and Miguel Cabrera (2012) pull it off.
No Astros player has ever won the Triple Crown.
Yordan Alvarez Triple Crown prediction
Could Alvarez become the first? The Astros -- who are clinging to the lead in the AL West -- and Alvarez have nine games remaining: they host the Braves for a three-game set this weekend before closing the regular season with a six-game road trip in Seattle (two games) and Sacramento (four games)
The two games in Seattle bring a difficult ballpark, but with three home games and finishing with four in Sacramento's Sutter Health Park, the conditions seem ripe for a strong finish. I'll predict that he gets the job done and wins the Triple Crown.
