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One of the more interesting subplots of the Houston Astros' 2025 season is Jose Altuve's ongoing transition to left field, his new defensive home after spending the entirety of his big league career prior to this year at second base. There were plenty of discouraging reports during Spring Training regarding Altuve's performance in the outfield, but through the first few games of the Astros' season, Altuve has shown himself to be quite the capable defender in his new position — at least based on advanced metrics.
However, there is one major outfield defense skill that Altuve is yet to get a full grasp of, and that is the glove-to-hand exchange that most veteran outfielders have down pat.
“They’ve been really making an emphasis on catching the ball and making the transfer right in front of you, and I keep going back to transfer,” Altuve said, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic.
Altuve needed to find a new defensive home, what with his defensive numbers at second base being on the decline over the past few years. And after his move to left field was met with much skepticism, the veteran is showing that there might very well be a second wind to his career.
It's early days anyway in Altuve's life at left field, and he's been hard at work at making sure that he plays not just passable, but solid defense for an Astros team that needs nearly everything to go in their favor to continue their streak of making the playoffs.
“We’re putting in a lot of work, and we’re working on everything now: fly balls, line drives, groundballs. I’m feeling slowly better out there. You can tell by the way I’ve been catching fly balls. I think at the end we’re going to keep working and keep getting better,” Altuve added.
Jose Altuve draws rave reviews from Astros for work in left field
Jose Altuve is 34 years of age and hasn't played left field in a serious capacity in quite a while, so it was a big ask from the Astros for the veteran to transition to a new position. But not only has Altuve taken this change in stride, he also has been showing signs of being a positive defender at the position, which should be a big help as Houston looks to extend its postseason streak to nine seasons.
“The routes and the fly balls, the tracking, the whole entire thing, he’s looking more comfortable and comfortable every day,” Astros manager Joe Espada said.
