Houston Astros: Jose Altuve envisions self with team until he's 40

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The world’s largest waterfall towers 3,212 feet above a jungle in Bolivar, Venezuela. It is a destination to decompress but holds deeper meaning for one of the country’s living legends. Venezuela honored him this winter with one of its highest baseball honors, allowing Jose Altuve a rare chance to return and reflect. 

Altuve’s birthplace in Puerto Cabello is just an hour from his hometown of Maracay. Drives between both cities helped introduce his two daughters to Daddy’s home. Neither is old enough to experience Angel Falls, where Altuve, his wife, Nina, and a group of friends found peace after his second World Series championship. 

“It’s more than just a waterfall. It’s something that means a lot to every Venezuelan. Just to get the opportunity to go there was just amazing,” Altuve said.

“It's a perfect reset for me, for my family. It's just in the middle of nowhere. No buildings, no cars, no anything there. It’s just all natural.”

Altuve does not visit Venezuela often. When he does, it offers a chance to cherish the journey that began there. Sixteen years ago, so many in the sport cast Altuve aside. He spent those years showing how silly that seems. A teenager no one wanted has transformed into the face his franchise would prefer not to function without.

Yet for the beginning of the 2023 season, it must. Altuve fractured his thumb in the World Baseball Classic and might not return before June. Regardless, he assuredly will play an important role in the Astros' pursuit of a fifth World Series berth in seven seasons 

“He’s not slowing down,” Hall of Famer Craig Biggio said this spring. “He’s a great player, one of the best players in the league. Every time he steps up to the plate, he’s probably one of the last guys you want to face, because he can take you deep, bunt for a hit, get on base, steal a base if he has to. He’s a very dynamic player.”

“He’s a guy that, hopefully, it’ll all work out, and he’ll have the same story kind of like I did.”

To one generation, Biggio is Astros baseball. To the next, Altuve has assumed the title. He embodies everything a franchise seeks in its face: an endearing and enthusiastic persona whose on-field excellence transcends eras. So few staples remain from the beginning of the Astros’ renaissance, teams that counted wins — not pennants — as precious currency. 

“This is the only city I’ve played in the big leagues, the only team, and it feels good,” Altuve said this spring. “I think what made it more special when I got to the big leagues was losing a lot and then (going through) the process, the rebuild and not winning. It makes me think, well, I was here since they were losing, (so) I want to stay here now that we are winning.” 

Sixty-five hits separate Altuve from 2,000. Even with the late start he'll get in 2023, he should collect them this season, adding another milestone to a career full of them. Biggio and fellow Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell are the only other players to total 2,000 career hits in a Houston uniform. Injuries limited Bagwell to 14 full seasons. Biggio played 20, a goal Altuve acknowledged this spring he shares with his fellow second baseman.  

“I'm 32, and I want to play to 40,” Altuve said. “I love what I'm doing right now. I love my game. I enjoy my game, … When I go out there and put my uniform on, I really enjoy playing with these guys. Hopefully, like Craig said, I can stay here for the rest of my career. Everybody knows it's not up to me. But (it’s) something I would love to (do).” 

Altuve is not often authoritative, but he opened his 13th major league spring training with a rare pronouncement. Altuve said he hopes to "retire here,” reaffirming similar comments from first-year general manager Dana Brown. 

The conversation put a timeline on a career few in this city can ever fathom ending. Altuve’s current contract expires after next season, during which he will turn 34. After he initially declined to speculate, a reminder of Justin Verlander’s pledge to pitch until he’s 45 prompted Altuve to consider whether he could join him.

“I'll say 40. Forty-five is a little aggressive,” Altuve said with a chuckle. “I think (playing until) 40 will be good. I’d take 39, 39-40.”

Brown pledged more serious extension exploration next winter for both Altuve and third baseman Alex Bregman. Jim Crane already gave Altuve the most lucrative deal during his ownership tenure, the five-year, $151 million extension he is still playing under. A blueprint now exists for Crane to ensure Altuve never leaves the franchise he helped resurrect.

“Altuve was the face of our rise. When we were starting to kind of ascend in winning and becoming a big-time, leading franchise in the sport, Altuve was, I think, the one that captured that,” Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. said.  “His story, where he comes from, kind of up against the odds. He somehow finds a way to be, in my opinion, one of the best players of our generation.

“Every time it seems like we have big runs or big moments, Altuve is always a center part of it.”

Legacy repolished

Each winter, Venezuelan baseball writers give the Luis Aparicio Award to their country’s best major league player. Aparicio remains the only Venezuelan-born player enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Miguel Cabrera is playing his final season and sure to join him when eligible.

Cabrera’s retirement will cement Altuve as Venezuela’s best active big leaguer. As a reward for his 2022 season, Altuve won the Aparicio Award for the fourth time. No man — not even Cabrera — has more. Altuve’s trip home this winter allowed him to accept it alongside reigning American League batting champion Luis Arráez, with whom he shared the honor. 

Altuve had not won the award since 2017. Tumult and triumph defined the five years in between. Scrutiny resulting from the Astros' sign-stealing scandal was a potential impediment to Altuve’s ascension to baseball’s pinnacle, but last season cemented his place atop it. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and sixth Silver Slugger Award, finished fifth in American League MVP voting, and produced a .921 OPS.

Altuve’s best statistical season since 2017 featured the same ending. The second baseman leapt into the outstretched arms of a young shortstop to catalyze a celebration. Houston needed a second World Series championship to silence a sport still fixated on its five-year-old faults. 

Altuve required one to repair a public perception, however insane it seems. He has appeared in 335 games since Major League Baseball issued its January 2020 ruling on Houston’s wrongdoing. He has a .356 on-base percentage, .486 slugging percentage and 132 OPS+ — 32 points above league average. Both the slugging percentage and OPS+ exceed Altuve’s career averages. 

“With what he’s been through, he almost had to rebuild his career,” McCullers said. “He had to rebuild his legacy post-scandal. And you look at the 2021 season, you look at last year — the OPS numbers were better than ever, the power numbers were better than ever, he’s still hitting at a crazy high average, playing great defense, stealing bases.”

Teammates insist Altuve did not endorse or participate in the trash-can-banging scheme that tainted the franchise’s first title. Few outside of Houston cared. Years since have exposed a league-wide electronic sign-stealing problem, but the Astros acted egregiously and erased almost any benefit of the doubt they might have received. 

Tattoos and Twitter speculation further thrust the face of the franchise into a firestorm. For two seasons, almost all of his 639 road plate appearances arrived amid ample boos and derision. 

“In baseball, nothing is easy,” Altuve said. “Even in life, nothing is easy. If you want to do great things, you have to go through a lot of ups and downs and a lot of stuff. It is what it is. We've been overcoming a lot of the adversity.”

Fans fuel Altuve, even if most are maligning him. Few humans are equipped to absorb an entire country chastising them. Altuve somehow discovered a path, thriving in environments where most fade. 

Altuve ascribed his entire decline during the 60-game season in 2020 to empty stadiums, acknowledging he “didn’t really have that motivation” to take the field. He hit .219 and reached base at a .286 clip during the 48 games he played. At one point, he asked manager Dusty Baker to move him down in the batting order to benefit the team. 

“I hope we don't play ever again like that,” Altuve said. “You saw my numbers drop like crazy. It's not like an excuse, but it's hard to play with no fans. There’s no adrenaline, no energy. What are you playing for? Yourself? So (I) didn't really have that motivation to go out there.”

In the two seasons since crowds returned, Altuve has struck 27 home runs, reached base at a .347 clip and produced an .806 OPS away from Minute Maid Park. Compartmentalizing criticism is mandatory. For Altuve, it meant a mental adjustment.

“Maybe before, I tried to control everything versus now. I can’t control what people say, what people do,” Altuve said. “You just can control what you can do and what you can do to get better or to help your teammates.”

Credit sharer

One March morning, Altuve shared breakfast with Biggio on a pavilion at the Astros' spring training facility. The two men met 12 years ago on a back field in Kissimmee,Fla. According to Biggio, Altuve “hasn’t changed one iota since.” He is a fiercely private person that “team-first” does not begin to describe. Call him the face of the franchise, and he’ll fight back, even if everyone watching disagrees.

“When you put everybody together, that's what the Houston Astros are. I never think about myself being the guy or the face,” Altuve said. 

“They deserve the credit I give to them because they prepare themselves. We're not getting lucky about winning games or winning the World Series. It’s because they go out there and they are really prepared. … The other reason is because I feel like I still need to get better. I have a lot of room to get better in every aspect of my game.”

No major league player since 2011 has more hits than Altuve. He has won three batting titles and the 2017 AL Most Valuable Player Award, and his two-run walk-off homer against the Yankees' Aroldis Chapman clinched the 2019 AL pennant. Altuve’s assertion he can get better seems ludicrous but illustrates the rarefied air he occupies. 

“I think when guys are searching for greatness, they just don’t truly understand how good they are or how special they are,” McCullers said. “They just think they’re getting by in a way. They don’t quite understand the scope of their greatness. And I think he doesn’t understand the scope of his greatness.”

Altuve intends to play eight more seasons. He must average 134 hits a year in that span to join Biggio as the only Astros with 3,000. Altuve has accrued more than 149 during each of his 10 162-game seasons, although his thumb injury might put that standard in peril this year. 

Both Biggio and Bagwell have formed a bond with Altuve. He credited Bagwell with “helping me lately a lot about everything: hitting, mentally,” but a shared position, stature and aw-shucks persona pair Altuve and Biggio together in more sentences.

“Just the fact that someone can mention my name next to his, it’s like a reminder: OK, Jose you are doing good,” Altuve said. “I think every player needs to be reminded (of) that at some point. Numbers are one thing, but your career is another thing.”

Altuve’s is nearing its next act, one that can further cement him as an icon in his natural home and adopted one while completing the case for Cooperstown his two friends share.

“There's guys that have better numbers and careers than me. So there's always room to get better,” Altuve said. “What's better than eight All-Stars? Nine. What’s better than 2,000 hits? 2,100. I always want to stay in the game. Obviously, I only have two more years (on my contract) — this one and one more — but I’m in such good shape that I can play long enough to keep doing stuff to keep getting better.”