MINNEAPOLIS — Twenty major-league left fielders awoke Saturday with at least 44 innings played, enough to qualify for inclusion on defensive leaderboards. Only one had recorded fewer putouts than Jose Altuve, the Houston Astros icon who is amid a transition that has transfixed the sport.
Fascination has accompanied each of Altuve’s first six starts in left field. Five featured nothing to warrant it, accentuating the Astros’ rationale for moving Altuve in the first place. He is a declining defender now away from most of the action, playing behind a pitching staff that team officials expect to generate more groundballs than most of its counterparts.
After eight games, Altuve is far less involved in the Astros’ defensive dynamic, but hiding him all season is impossible. Tests of his four-month outfield crash course are coming, the latest a 247-foot fly ball Ty France blooped into shallow left field on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Target Field.
Expecting Altuve to conquer every outfield challenge is nonsensical, even if his career consists of countless instances that make it feel feasible. The progress he has shown is apparent, be it with some athletic catches in the gap or decisions during plays that draw little fanfare. With the caveat of a minuscule sample, Altuve still entered Saturday worth one out above average in left field.
“The routes and the fly balls, the tracking, the whole entire thing, he’s looking more comfortable and comfortable every day,” manager Joe Espada said after Houston’s 6-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
Only one problem persists. After the catches he makes or other contact he secures, Altuve can not complete the glove-to-hand exchange, a rudimentary skill to seasoned outfielders but something this converted second baseman is struggling to master.
“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,” said Altuve, who demonstrated his mistakes by reaching both hands behind his back.
“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.”
Jose Altuve attempts to catch a ball hit by Juan Soto at Daikin Park on March 29. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)
Altuve’s instincts and intentions in the outfield are good. He slowed as he approached France’s fly ball in Saturday’s fourth inning, opting to keep the baseball in front of him rather than risk diving with runners standing on first and second. The ball bounced straight to Altuve, who secured it without issue.
When he did, Byron Buxton stood stuck between second and third. Buxton did not get an ideal read on France’s fly ball but boasts the sort of premier speed to mask the mistake. He covers 29.5 feet per second when he sprints, faster than all but one qualified player in baseball.
“I know he’s new out there,” Buxton said, “so I wanted to be a little bit aggressive.”
Buxton is so fast that Altuve had almost no chance to throw him out at third base. Altuve attempted it anyway. He brought his hands back to begin the throw, only to have the ball fall out of his glove. Buxton scored the tying run when it did.
“I didn’t think that much; I just rushed,” Altuve said. “It was Byron Buxton running, so you think you have to catch and throw. I think the right way to do it is (to) catch the ball, make sure you have it and then throw it.”
The error is Altuve’s first in left field all season, but it bore an almost eerie resemblance to the two plays he botched in Grapefruit League play. Altuve dropped those fly balls in the air, both of which came with runners at third base and less than two outs. Even then, Altuve acknowledged thinking about the throw before he secured the catch.
“I think I did everything right until I rushed to throw the ball,” Altuve said. “I should be catching the ball and then throwing it. We’ve been working on that, but during the game, you go with what you have. It was obviously a big mistake there that ended up costing us a run.”
Myriad reasons exist for Altuve’s mishaps, and foremost among them is this: He is an infielder in his fourth month of full-time outfield play. That it took eight games for such a glaring gaffe underscores why the Astros are comfortable with letting Altuve learn. Lumps are coming, but it isn’t as if they’ll be a daily occurrence.
Altuve is using a larger glove than he wore at second base, something he acknowledged Saturday is “for sure” factoring into his transfer problems. That he has one of the sport’s weakest throwing arms can’t be overlooked, either. Minnesota third-base coach Tommy Watkins said the Twins entered the series going “off of what you see from him throwing from the infield.”
Altuve averaged 75.5 mph on the 553 throws he made from second base last season. The Astros can mitigate the issue by positioning their cutoff men deeper in the outfield, but Altuve still has to be quick in initiating the relay.
Altuve rushed Saturday, which started a spiral. The Twins scored five more runs in the frame after Altuve’s gaffe, though blaming it entirely for the loss is unfair. Houston’s lineup stranded 11 base runners and totaled 13 strikeouts.
Altuve’s solo home run on the game’s second pitch produced the Astros’ only run. He spent a sleepless Thursday night recounting the worst offensive game of his wonderful career, a five-strikeout clunker that caused cheers from an otherwise subdued opposing crowd during Thursday’s victory.
Way to start us off Tuve!#BuiltForThis pic.twitter.com/K17GqgSWXI
— Houston Astros (@astros) April 5, 2025
That Altuve responded with a three-hit game surprised no one. He is 12-for-33 to begin the season, the only semblance of continuity in this strikeout-prone lineup. Nothing he does in left field is more vital than that.
— The Athletic’s Dan Hayes contributed to this report.
(Top photo of Jose Altuve and Jake Meyers: Tim Warner / Getty Images)