Astros’ Jose Altuve Beginning Rehab Assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land on Friday
All eyes will be on the Houston Astros’ Triple-A affiliate Friday night as Jose Altuve makes his highly-anticipated return to game action.
Altuve, who hasn’t played all season after fracturing his right thumb during the World Baseball Classic in March, will begin a rehab assignment with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. He’s expected to play second base his first time out.
The 33-year-old underwent surgery to repair his broken thumb less than two months ago.
Altuve was expected to miss at least two months but resumed baseball activities last week and participated in batting practice during the club’s road trip to T-Mobile Park last Saturday. And his BP session amazed many of his coaches and teammates.
Houston’s All-Star second baseman has faced live pitching for most of this week at Constellation Field, Sugar Land’s home ballpark. He’s also fielded grounders at second and practiced running the bases with a protective guard on his right thumb.
“Some guys heal faster than other guys, and he seems to be one of those guys,” Astros GM Dana Brown said in March. “After that, we’ll assess and hopefully he’s coming along well. It looks like it’s going to be about two months.”
Position players can remain on a rehab assignment for a maximum of 20 days, meaning the Astros have until May 31 before deciding on Altuve’s status. But considering how quickly he’s progressed thus far, he could return before that deadline arrives.
Houston’s primary concern, however, is providing its six-time Silver Slugger with enough reps at the plate and in the field so he can hit the ground running whenever he’s activated from the injured list.
Mauricio Dubón has filled in admirably for Altuve this season, featuring a 20-game hitting streak at one point, which was previously the longest in the majors. The 28-year-old is hitting just .287/.306/.357 with zero home runs and an 84 wRC+ in 31 contests however.
To his credit, the versatile defender has been serviceable at second base, posting +5 Defensive Runs Saved across 270.2 innings. That should help him stay on the roster upon Altuve’s eventual return.
Offensively Houston’s lineup should receive a massive boost once No. 27 is activated, as he slashed .300/.387/.533 with 28 home runs and a career-best 164 wRC+ over 141 games last season. His overall performance was worth 6.6 fWAR, finishing fifth in AL MVP voting.
The two-time World Series champion also went 18-for-19 in stolen base attempts, his highest total since 2017, the same year he was named the American League’s MVP.
Houston has largely underperformed out of the gate, sitting third in the AL West Division at 19-18 through 37 games. A few winnable series are ahead, though, as each of their next nine contests will come against sub-.500 teams.
Still, the sooner Altuve returns, the closer the Astros’ roster will look to the one that captured its second World Series title in six seasons last fall.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Jeffrey Hayes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.