Astros Report Card: Grading the infielders’ 2019 season

Jose Altuve:  B+

Now before anyone jumps all over me for the B+ rating, hear me out. Altuve finished out the 2019 season with a flurry, playing like we’re accustomed to seeing from him. The rating is a result of the two different seasons Altuve had this year. In the first half of the season I would have given him a C and the second half he clearly had an A+, therefore, I’m averaging it out to a B+.

Altuve suffered a knee injury in the middle of last season and continued to play on it the remainder of the year. In October, he had surgery to repair a broken kneecap. I don’t think he was at full strength and was a little tentative at the beginning of the year. When he went out for 35 days on the Injured List in May, they made sure he was completely ready to go before bringing him back.

At the beginning of the season up until the All-Star break, he was batting .262 with 25 RBIs and an OPS of .781. In the second half of the season, his BA was .325 with a .995 OPS and added 49 RBIs. Altuve doubled his home run output from 10 in the first half to 21 in the second for a total of 31 homers, a career-high number. But most of his other stats were all below his career average.

As we’ve seen year after year, Altuve is no slouch in the field either. He was also a finalist for the American League Gold Glove Award, losing out to Yolmer Sanchez. That would have been his second Gold Glove, winning one in 2015.

The six-time All-Star missed out on the July Classic this year for the first time in six years. But you can bet he’ll be back next season battling for that batting crown once again, which by the way, he has won three times already.