Are the Astros giving Jose Altuve a five-year extension through 2025

The Houston Astros are taking care of their second MVP in franchise history.

Jose Altuve signed a very team friendly extension in 2014, locking him up until 2019. Since then, he has played at high level for below market value. Altuve feels like the next player who will be a career-long Astro similar to Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. It was only a matter of time before the Astros locked him up.

The 27-year-old Altuve won the 2017 AL MVP Award batted .346 with 24 homers and 81 RBIs while stealing 32 bases. When he would have become a free agent, it would have been when Altuve was 29-years-old. That is an excellent age for Altuve to shop his talents elsewhere and get a long-term deal.

Mr. Astro!

The Astros are aware of the fact that they have a gem in Altuve. So they wanted to reward him and show that they are serious about keeping him in Astros blue and orange. According to Brian McTaggart, the Astros and Altuve are nearing a five-year extension beginning in 2020. McTaggart said that he has heard that it was for five-years abs $150 million. That averages to $30 million a season.

Jon Heyman later tweeted that it was actually $151 million, but its a great deal for both sides. Altuve will continue to play under his current contracts of $6 and $6.5 million for 2018-19 respectively. This means that Altuve will be under team control through 2025. Altuve will serve as the team leader for the young and up and coming Astros. This will be a group of young players led by Kyle Tucker.

This current core of players are set to win a few more World Series over the next few year. Now Altuve can just focus on playing and not on his next deal. My Talking Stros co-host felt that it would take $30 million a season to get it done, he was correct. This means they can possibly offer more to Carlos Correa when his time comes around.

Team leader.

Props to Altuve for not whining about his current contract and how Yuli Gurriel made more than he did. Altuve never worried about the money and put the needs of his teammates first. The results led to the Stros winning the World Series last year.

According to McTaggart, this is the largest contract since Carlos Lee’s six-year $100 million contract. I have a feeling this one will work out better than Lee’s.

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This is a good deal for the Astros once again locking Altuve up before he had a chance to test his market value. Maybe Altuve feels like Houston is home, so he’s willing to stick around. This is an excellent day for the Astros; they have Altuve locked up until he is 34-years-old. Let’s go Astros!

***Stats from Baseball-Reference***