WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On peculiar ground stood José Altuve, with grass, not dirt, nestled beneath his size-8.5, white New Balance cleats.
As the mid-morning Florida sun began to click on its penetrating heat, Houston’s diminutive baseball talisman scampered through a series of outfield drills on Field No. 2 at the Astros’ spring training complex. He appeared eager, relaxed, energized by the newness of the activity, yet his movements carried an unmistakable sense of unfamiliarity.
The foreignness of it all was understandable. The day before — Houston’s first official full-squad workout — was Altuve’s first major public showing in left field.
For the past decade, the Venezuelan superstar has lived a blessed, predictable existence: arrive at Astros camp in early February, start 100-some games at second base, deliver a batting average around .300, knock 25 homers, make the All-Star team, play deep into October, rinse and repeat. As certain as the rising of the morning sun.
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But this spring, Altuve is wrestling with change on multiple fronts. After 1,749 career starts at the keystone, the longtime second baseman is widely expected to be Houston’s every-day left fielder in 2025. The move, which had been discussed internally for years, is about making the most of Altuve’s skill set as he creeps further into his 30s.
Altuve, who will turn 35 in May, ranked as one of the game’s worst defensive infielders over the past few seasons. That the Astros’ two best starters, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown, had the highest and seventh-highest groundball rates in MLB last year only served to accentuate the problem. Pushing Altuve to the grass and moving utilityman Mauricio Dubon to second base, the Astros hope, will turn more batted balls into outs.
Predictably, Altuve has tried to downplay the significance of his positional shift.
“I’m trying not to make this a big deal and a focus,” he said. “I wanna get rid of this left-field conversation, try to answer every question possible and then just move on.”
That’ll be easier said than done, considering the added spotlight that will be on Houston’s leading man this season. An offseason of turnover has left Altuve as the only remaining position player from the 2017 World Series team, that most infamous outfit that earned both ire and punishment around the game for its can-banging, sign-stealing malfeasance. Alex Bregman, Altuve’s infield companion since July 2016 and former fellow face of the franchise, was the winter’s most notable departure, but Boston’s new $120 million man wasn’t the lone Astros stalwart to leave town.
Kyle Tucker, the only Astro with better production than Altuve this decade, was traded to Chicago in January in something of a future-oriented move. Ryan Pressly, Houston’s lockdown closer since 2018, joined Tucker in the Windy City in a different cost-cutting deal a few weeks later. Justin Verlander, a future Hall of Famer wading through the twilight of his career, departed via free agency as well.
Altuve in the Astros clubhouse this spring is “Fresh Prince” Will Smith, nostalgically scanning a familiar room, wondering where time and its companions have gone.
“Those guys are special. They’re all really good. Where they are, they all signed great deals. They’re all great players,” he said. “Here, we gotta move on and focus on winning. The goal remains the same.”
Altuve and the franchise he helped propel to a golden era have weathered exoduses before. Staple players such as George Springer, Carlos Correa, Michael Brantley, Gerrit Cole, Yuli Gurriel and Dallas Keuchel all departed. Yet for the most part, Houston kept on winning, appearing in seven consecutive ALCS and capturing the 2022 World Series title. And while their seventh straight full-season AL West crown in 2024 was sullied by a humbling, streak-snapping defeat to the Detroit Tigers in the wild-card round, the Astros have continued to rage against the dying of the light.
Altuve’s confidence in the 2025 club is not completely misguided. Yordan Álvarez, Houston’s obelisk-sized designated hitter, was a top-five hitter in MLB last year. He, Altuve, catcher Yainer Díaz and a pair of offseason arrivals — first baseman Christian Walker and third baseman Isaac Paredes — should be an impactful quintet atop the lineup. Plus, after a rocky April, the Astros’ starting staff had the league’s second-lowest ERA last year. That unit could be even better with full seasons from 2024 breakouts Hunter Brown and Spencer Arighetti. Side-slinging southpaw Josh Hader remains an elite closer.
FanGraphs gives Houston a 53.1% chance to make the playoffs, despite the cavalcade of departures.
And so, in some ways, Altuve’s positional switch represents a more drastic, more novel change to the Astros’ status quo.
No big leaguer has started more games at second base since the 5-foot-6 Venezuelan made his MLB debut on July 20, 2011. An unheralded prospect because of those vertical deficiencies, Altuve surpassed all reasonable expectations, evolving into one of the era’s most productive, impactful and polarizing ballplayers. Beloved in the Rocket City for his postseason heroics and reviled elsewhere for his presumed role in the 2017 cheating scandal, Altuve should, if he stays healthy down the homestretch of his career, end up in Cooperstown.
Those around the Astros have no worries about Altuve’s ability to adjust to the outfield. The same qualities that enabled a 5-foot-6 slap hitter to become a generational talent should enable a painless enough transition. Altuve is capable, hardworking and willing to do whatever it takes to keep Houston’s competitive window open. One teammate joked that Altuve would catch if the Astros asked him to.
One valuable resource for Altuve is Dubon, the man likely to fill his shoes at second base. Dubon, an affable, 30-year-old, average-hitting utility man, has spent his entire career shuffling around the diamond.
“If I’m at short and then I go move to center, I forget I played short,” Dubon told Yahoo Sports. “You know what I mean? Like, if I’m playing center, I’m playing center. I’m not a shortstop playing center field. You gotta be able to switch mindsets.”
By all indications, Altuve has taken to his new position. Astros coaches are enthusiastic about his development. His athleticism, even as he nears 35, hasn’t abandoned him yet. And given the tiny confines of left field at Houston’s Daikin Park — even the ballpark name changed this year — Altuve won’t have too much ground to cover. An Astros outfield instructor recently called the club’s new left fielder “a kid in a candy store.”
Yet there is something daunting, something humbling about Altuve’s positional switch. Moving to left field is the baseball equivalent of moving to a retirement community. It’s not quite the assisted living facility that is being an every-day designated hitter, but it’s an undeniable, unavoidable reminder that Father Time remains undefeated.
Altuve isn’t the only force beholden to the unfurling of calendars. Eventually, time will also run out on this era of Astros baseball, leaving it to the history books and the memory banks.
But for now, Altuve is determined to ward off the inevitable for at least one more year.
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