Jose Altuve officially appears to be in his corner outfield era.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Houston Astros manager Joe Espada answered the big question about the former AL MVP Altuve heading into the 2025 campaign. Espada said that the plan is for Altuve to play primarily in left field this season.
“Right now, the plan is for him to play the majority of his games in left field,” said Espada, per Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. “The days that he plays second base opens the door for Yordan [Alvarez] maybe getting a start in left field, someone getting a DH day. So this move allows us to be creative and do stuff like that.”
Espada did add too though that he would like to avoid moving Altuve “back and forth” between positions (indicating that Altuve’s starts at second base could be few and far between).
At 34 years old, the nine-time MLB All-Star Altuve has started every single game in his entire professional career at second base. But he became open to the move to the outfield this offseason in order to potentially accommodate a return by longtime Astros teammate Alex Bregman. While that didn’t work out as Bregman went on to sign a big contract with an AL rival in free agency, Altuve has still been trying out left field during spring training this year.
The shuffling of the deck has become necessary for Houston as they acquired a pair of notable infielders this winter in Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes. With Altuve now set to play left field, one of Mauricio Dubon or Brendan Rodgers (both of whom are former Gold Glovers) will likely be Houston’s everyday starter at second base instead.
