Through Monday, Jose Altuve was leading the A.L. in hits and stolen bases for the third year in a row, while also leading the majors in batting average, on-base percentage and total bases.
HOUSTON — Of all his wondrous statistics this season, Jose Altuve cares most about games played. Altuve, the Houston Astros’ second baseman, has played all 101 this season, part of an active streak that leads the majors.
“I feel proud to be able to play every day,” Altuve said. “That’s what makes me really happy. Numbers, they can change. You can be here, then tomorrow you can be there. But I think the value of a player that goes out there and plays every day is big.”
When the player is Altuve, the value could not be higher. With two months to go, he appears to be the leader for the American League Most Valuable Player Award. Only one Astro has been his league’s M.V.P. — Jeff Bagwell in 1994. Bagwell is on the cusp of election to the Hall of Fame.
Altuve, 26, has a long way to go, but his trajectory is encouraging. Before going hitless in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Yankees, he was leading the A.L. in hits and stolen bases for the third year in a row, while also leading the majors in batting average, on-base percentage and total bases. Last year, he won a Gold Glove at second base.
“He won the batting title two years ago, and he came in even hungrier the next year,” said Astros infielder Marwin Gonzalez, who has known Altuve since they were teenagers in Venezuela. “That’s what people don’t know about him. Whatever he ends the season with this year, he’s going to want more next year and he’s going to work even harder. It’s never enough for him.”
Few players have packaged their numbers quite the way that Altuve is doing now. The last player to finish the season as the A.L. leader in average, hits, on-base percentage, steals and total bases was Ty Cobb in 1917.
Cobb also led in slugging percentage — his six home runs ranked fourth in the league — and Altuve’s .566 mark entering Wednesday ranked third in the A.L. His 17 homers are a career high and a direct result, the Astros believe, of being more selective.
Every season, Manager A. J. Hinch said, Altuve sets a new goal. Two years ago, before Hinch arrived, Altuve wanted to lead the league in hits. Last season, he wanted to win his first Gold Glove. This season, he wanted to improve his strike-zone judgment.
That sounds elementary, but Altuve does not need to swing at strikes to get hits. Similar to Yogi Berra (who was 5 feet 7 inches, an inch taller than Altuve), he is a classic bad-ball hitter.
“He didn’t have as much incentive as the other guys to change his approach,” General Manager Jeff Luhnow said, “because he could swing at a ball well outside the zone, a ball that we would say you should never swing at, and he could actually hit it for a single, a double and occasionally a home run. So the feedback mechanism wasn’t coming back saying, ‘Don’t do that.’ He was basically so gifted at bat control that he could get away with it.”
Essentially, Altuve decided that being able to hit bad pitches did not preclude him from hunting good ones. After five major league seasons, he said, he could use a more sophisticated game plan by making pitchers respect his discipline.
“Year by year, you learn a little bit every day,” Altuve said. “Sometimes you go to home plate and you have an idea, like a clear idea, of what they’re going to throw to you. I think that’s all: getting better pitches to hit, realizing when you hit the ball better, what pitch you hit, if you’re chasing too much. If you figure out all that, you can get a little better as a player.”
This season Altuve has seen more pitches per plate appearance than ever (an average of 3.57 through Monday), and has hit in a higher percentage of 2-0, 3-0 and 3-1 counts than ever before. He can still connect with almost any pitch, but now he is getting more opportunities to drive the ball.
“I had a conversation with him at the beginning of the season, about some of the guys that he watches,” Hinch said. “He loves Miguel Cabrera, he loves Victor Martinez, he loves Ian Kinsler. We played the Tigers early, and when you talk about those hitters, you think damage.”
Those players combine walks with power, Hinch said, adding, “I don’t think Jose put himself in that category until this season, when he strengthened his strike-zone judgment and he started producing at an all-time high.”
The Astros, who had baseball’s best record from May 1 through Monday, have largely been rewarded for an organizational commitment to analytics. Altuve was originally signed by the previous management, but he signed an extension under Luhnow in 2013 that binds him to the Astros through 2019. The maximum value of the deal, if the team exercises two club options, is six years and $25 million.
Altuve can still reach free agency at age 29, but the deal is a bargain for the Astros, who did not know he would evolve this way. Statistical models do not account for this much improvement by a player who has already been so good.
“I didn’t think it was possible after last year, but he’s managed to do it,” Luhnow said of Altuve’s continued growth. “He’s got a more complete game this year. He’s having an even bigger impact on this team. He’s the reason we’re having the success we’re having.”
Tuesday was a struggle for the Astros and Altuve, whose average dropped to .355 as his on-base percentage fell to .422. But he was back on Wednesday, the way he always is, adding to his consecutive-games streak, which stands at 192.
That is roughly 15 full seasons away from Cal Ripken’s record streak of 2,632. Altuve idolized a different A.L. shortstop in the 1990s, Omar Vizquel, but he knew Ripken held the record. He did not know the number.
“Two thousand, man, that’s a lot,” Altuve said. “It’s almost impossible.”
Almost, but not completely. Altuve does not set limits.
