José Altuve has the greatest amount of openings in the second base of any active MLB player, but that count may have stopped since Houston’s stars plan to play mainly in the left garden this season, said manager Joe Espada to journalists on Monday.
“At this time, the plan is to play most of its games in the left field,” said Espada, adding that moving Altuve “round trip is something that I will avoid.”
You will need to get used to fans of the stars who have seen Altuve Man The Keystone since their rookie season 2011. He won the Golden Glove in 2015, and in 2020 he led the Al with the least amount of errors in the second base. He also helped the Astros win the 2022 World Series about the Philadelphia Philis and the 2017 World Series on the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the year he won the MVP of Al.
Altuve’s bat may not be at the level he was during his MVP campaign, he hit .295 in 2024, but his field has not received a blow. In 2024, he made only five errors in 146 openings and led all the second base base with a .989 philient percentage.
It is an interesting movement since the stars did not come out and acquired a shameless replacement in the second base. The idea of moving Altuve on the left was approached for the first time when the team sought to keep the third base Alex Bregman. If Bregman had returned to Houston, he could have forced Isaac Paredes to change the second base and Altuve in the garden, but with Bregman joining the red socks, Paredes will remain in the third.
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When talking about Bregman in the team’s fanfest in January, Altuve said: “Whatever you have to do to stay, I am willing to do it.” When asked how difficult it would be to change to the garden after never playing there before, he said with a smile: “For Alex, nothing will be difficult.”
Even after Bregman signed with Boston, moving Altuve to the garden still made sense to the team.
Mauricio Dubon and Brendan Rodgers have changed the initial tasks in the second base during spring training. Dubon is a man of public services who has played all the positions in the diamond in two seasons in Houston, while Rodgers arrived in Houston from the Rockies of Colorado in the free agency.
Altuve, a nine times there and three times of batting, has played all except two of its 1,767 large league openings in the second base.
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