{"id":97453,"date":"2025-03-14T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T23:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97453"},"modified":"2025-03-14T19:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T23:13:11","slug":"astros-jose-altuve-replacement-second-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/14\/astros-jose-altuve-replacement-second-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Need New Second Baseman After Jose Altuve Moves to Outfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Jose Altuve the Outfielder becoming a reality, who will replace the Gold Glove winner second base for the Houston Astros? Talks of shifting Altuve from second base to left field first came about when the Astros re-engaged with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/23\/astros-seeking-postseason-gem\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">longtime third baseman Alex Bregman<\/a> late in free agency. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BNightengale\/status\/1882523986871156764\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reported at the time that Houston was considering sliding Isaac Paredes from third to second base and shifting Altuve to the outfield if they re-signed Bregman. But then Bregman signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/12\/alex-bregman-red-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">three-year, $120 million deal<\/a> with the Boston Red Sox, taking the Altuve to the outfield idea off the table, or so we thought.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Altuve, who has been Houston\u2019s everyday second baseman since 2011, is now expected to become the Astros\u2019 primary left fielder. Manager Joe Espada is planning for the 34-year-old infielder-turned-outfielder to play \u201ca majority\u201d of his games in left field. He also dismissed the idea of Altuve shuffling positions, saying he prefers him to play &#8220;one position for most games.&#8221; A former Gold Glove second baseman, Altuve\u2019s defense has declined in recent years, leading the Astros to suggest a position change. While Espada still intends to give the nine-time All-Star reps at the keystone, if Altuve is in the outfield, who will be the Astros&#8217; second baseman?<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">First look at Jose Altuve the left fielder \ud83d\udc40 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cF5psQcYoy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/cF5psQcYoy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBNetwork\/status\/1892998471327895810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Who Will Replace Jose Altuve at Second Base for the Astros?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Espada has yet to name Altuve\u2019s successor, but Gold Glove utilityman Mauricio Dub\u00f3n has primarily played second base this spring. Dub\u00f3n began the 2023 campaign as Houston\u2019s starting second baseman after Altuve fractured his thumb during the World Baseball Classic. He started a career-high 66 games at the position and became a Gold Glove finalist at second base and as a utilityman. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the 30-year-old has never played a full season at any position, he has 12 defensive runs saved and 8 outs above average in 1,154 innings at second base.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Houston also has former Gold Glove second baseman Brendan Rodgers and veteran Luis Guillorme in camp on minor league deals. After being non-tendered by the Colorado Rockies, Rodgers <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/20\/veteran-infielder-brendan-rodgers-astros\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signed with Houston<\/a> shortly after news broke about Altuve moving to left field. A Gold Glove winner in 2022, the 28-year-old leads the team with 44 innings played at second base this spring. Despite outhitting both Rodgers and Dub\u00f3n through 19 at-bats, Guillorme, the former New York Met, seems destined for a bench role. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 30-year-old utility infielder is primarily a second baseman but has drawn starts at both third base and shortstop. Guillorme has made four starts at shortstop for Houston this spring, and should Dub\u00f3n win the starting job, Guillorme would likely be shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a\u2019s primary backup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Jose Altuve the Outfielder becoming a reality, who will replace the Gold Glove winner second base for the Houston Astros? Talks of shifting Altuve from second base to left field first came about when the Astros re-engaged with longtime third baseman Alex Bregman late in free agency. USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale reported at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":97500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1071],"tags":[1156,2352,1731,251,4595,777,2262,895],"class_list":["post-97453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","tag-alex-bregman","tag-brendan-rodgers","tag-joe-espada","tag-jose-altuve","tag-luis-guillorme","tag-mauricio-dubon","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-spring-training"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97453"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97502,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97453\/revisions\/97502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}