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Astros lock Jose Altuve up for ‘life’ with final blockbuster extension

Houston finally gave Altuve the extension they should have given him long ago.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Climbing Tal's Hill

Championship Series - Texas Rangers v Houston Astros - Game Seven / Bob Levey/GettyImages

Most of the talk about the Houston Astros and their extension has been a lot of speculation and wishful thinking. However, one constant has existed throughout all of those rumors: the Astros simply cannot let Jose Altuve leave. Kyle Tucker, Framber Valdez, and Alex Bregman are all fine players, but Altuve is a guy that will go down in history as one of the best players to ever play the game.

Altuve has been a Houston icon for the better part of 13 seasons where he has slashed .307/.364/.471 with 209 homers, 293 stolen bases, eight All-Star Game appearances, the 2017 AL MVP award, and helped the Astros win two World Series. Barring the unforeseen, he will be enshrined in Cooperstown at some point. To the Astros credit, they have been open about their desire to keep Altuve for a long time and the feeling was definitely mutual.

Well, the saga is officially over as Altuve is an Astros for life with his five year contract extension that was revealed on Tuesday evening from a slew of sources including FanSided's own Robert Murray.

Astros Jose Altuve contract extension details

Altuve's new deal with keep him with the Astros through the 2029 season at a perfectly reasonable rate of $125 million total. He is receiving a $15 million signing bonus and his deal is paying him $30 million a year from 2025-2027, then $25 million in 2028 and finally $10 million in 2029. Paying up for the best prime years and then progressively less was not only a great move to make sure Altuve got taken care of, but also doesn't make his extension an albatross around the team's neck in the later part of the deal.

Houston is taking a bit of a risk here. Altuve is already 33 years old and his injuries in 2023 was a very real reminder that Father Time is undefeated and the older a player gets, the less likely they will continue to perform and/or stay healthy. Most extensions given to players as they get close to 40 years old end up as total disasters. Luckily, the structure of Altuve's deal prevents some of the risk on the backend of the deal.

In short, this is the deal that the Astros should have given Altuve a long time ago. Extending guys into their late 30's is inherently risky, but everyone knew that he was going to stay in town. The move taking as long as it did only added unnecessary, manufactured drama in what has been a great relationship. Fortunately, it all worked out and we should see Altuve retire in an Astros uniform.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.