Former Royals GM claims accidental credit for saving Jose Altuve’s Astros career

Since making his debut in 2011, Jose Altuve has morphed into a Houston Astros franchise icon and a likely Hall of Famer. Altuve's played his entire career in an Astros' uniform and has given the team a career .305/.361/.465 line and nine (and counting) All-Star appearances. If former GM Dayton Moore is to be believed, however, there was a moment when Altuve could have been traded to the Kansas City Royals.

Moore's time as the Royals chief executive was one filled with ups and downs. Moore brought back-to-back World Series appearances to Kansas City, including a win in 2015. He also left the organization in rough shape after a series of player development failures in addition to a lack of investment in the team's roster.

Moore was also loyal to a fault, and that appears to be what happened in 2013. According to Moore, he received a call from Jeff Luhnow at the time, and the former Astros GM inquired about a potential trade that would've sent Altuve to the Royals in exchange for Eric Hosmer.

Astros can thank their lucky stars the KC Royals turned down a Jose Altuve trade

It's objectively funny that Moore turned down Altuve, and is on-brand for his reasoning to be, "Nope. Nope. I didn't like trading major-league players." Moore was long criticized for being unwilling to trade players from KC's major league roster in order to set the franchise up for success in the future. There may not be a bigger example than missing out on Altuve.

The deal (sort of) worked out for both sides, however. At the time, Altuve's bat wasn't what it was for most of his career, and there's no guarantee he would've developed into a generational player in Kansas City.

As for Hosmer, the second half of his career wasn't great, but he gave the Royals seven seasons with a reasonable .781 OPS and was a huge reason why Kansas City made it to the World Series in 2014 and 2015.

If you are a Royals fan, however, it must sting to hear that the executive running your team emphatically turned down a trade for a future MVP like Altuve — especially given that Hosmer's career faded badly. As for Astros fans, this feels like a bullet dodged and is a reminder that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make.

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