Boras: Astros have reached out about Jose Altuve extension, but no talks yet

Posted by Mittie Cheatwood on Wednesday, May 8, 2024

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scott Boras’ tendencies are not difficult to decipher. Baseball’s most powerful agent has long preferred his clients to test the free-agent market in lieu of contract extensions. Most — but not all — follow the directions.

“A lot of Boras guys have done extensions,” Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr. said in February 2021. “I know that you think of the big contracts and you think of Scott as someone who pushes for his guys. He genuinely loves the guys he represents, so he wants the best for them.”

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One month later, and one season before McCullers was scheduled to enter free agency, Boras negotiated a five-year, $85 million contract extension for the homegrown starter. Three years earlier, Boras engineered the most lucrative deal in Astros history — Altuve’s five-year, $151 million extension, one that arrived two years before Altuve was to enter free agency.

Altuve is again nearing free agency and Boras acknowledged on Wednesday that the Astros have expressed interest in another contract extension.

During spring training, Brown proclaimed that both Altuve and Alex Bregman — another Boras client — should “be Houston Astros for life.” Both Altuve and Bregman will be free agents after next season, delivering more urgency for Brown and owner Jim Crane to attempt a long-term pact with Boras this winter.

“We’re going to look into talking to both of them, particularly this offseason, maybe all the way up until spring training,” Brown said on Tuesday. “Once the season starts, we really don’t want to get too much into it, unless there’s some initiative from them during the season. But I think it’s something that we are going to look at closely this offseason.”

On Wednesday, Boras said there have not yet been any discussions with the Astros about either player.

In March, Altuve seemed far more bullish on brokering a long-term extension than Bregman.

Bregman is scheduled to enter free agency at age 30 and should command a deal far longer and more lucrative than Altuve.

Altuve will turn 34 in May and said in March he plans to play until he is 40 — seven more seasons. Altuve said then he hopes to “retire here” as an Astro, the only franchise he’s ever known. Precedent does exist to ensure that happens. 

Did Astros home woes get in their heads?

The trend took on a life of its own and ultimately torpedoed the Astros’ World Series defense. Houston played six home playoff games and lost five of them, including Games 6 and 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Texas Rangers.

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“We didn’t play well enough at home and that’s what finished our season,” outfielder Chas McCormick said after that Game 7 letdown. “We didn’t win enough at home.”

Houston finished last season 40-47 inside Minute Maid Park, including losses in 11 of the final 15 regular-season home games. Theories ranged from regression to injury to difficulty seeing the baseball against a problematic batter’s eye. General manager Dana Brown accepted none of them.

“I think it’s a fluke. I think it’s an aberration,” Brown said on Tuesday at the general managers’ meetings. “I think if you look at this club, the success that they’ve had in Houston has been really good. I don’t want to get wrapped up into it and make this a big psychological thing. I think the team’s been really good. I think it’s a fluke. I think guys started talking about it and they started pressing more.”

Brown’s belief is one shared throughout the organization, but the brutality is difficult to ignore, especially during a season that drew 3 million fans to Minute Maid Park for the first time since 2007. Including the playoffs, Houston had 29 home sellouts. The Astros won seven of those games.

Longstanding frustration with the Minute Maid Park batter’s eye boiled over as the team’s drought deepened. The team appeased players by extending it before the final regular-season homestand of the season. Houston responded by going 1-5.

“Can we darken it up? Can we do a couple of things? Maybe. But it’s not the batter’s eye. It’s not the stadium,” Brown said. “We got fans coming out, pouring their support, over 3 million fans coming through the gates. I think it’s an aberration.”

Baseball is an anomalous game, but a bevy of actual reasons exist for the regression. Foremost among them: inconsistency from Houston’s right-handed hitters inside a ballpark built for them to thrive.

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Astros right-handed hitters slugged .399 inside Minute Maid Park last season. Only six teams received a lower mark from their right-handed hitters at home — and only one of them, the Baltimore Orioles, made the playoffs.

Some of Baltimore’s struggles can be blamed on ballpark renovations that raised Camden Yards’ left field wall five feet and pushed it back by 30 feet. Minute Maid Park has no such problem. In fact, the Crawford Boxes in left field should be considered an advantage.

Instead, Astros right-handed hitters managed only 69 home runs inside Minute Maid Park last season. They hit 80 in 2022. Houston’s righties had slugged at least .430 at Minute Maid Park in both 2021 and 2022, too.

Signed in part to deliver some pull-side power, first baseman José Abreu played through a back injury for almost four months and authored the worst season of his career. Shortstop Jeremy Peña did not hit a home run across his final 310 regular-season plate appearances. Light-hitting catcher Martín Maldonado started 59 games inside Minute Maid Park while his backup, rookie slugger Yainer Diaz, started just 45.

Among Astros with at least 195 plate appearances at Minute Maid Park, Diaz (163) and McCormick (143) posted the highest wRC+ at home. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman were the only other hitters with a wRC+ above 100 at Minute Maid Park.

Diaz and McCormick will be far more prominent parts of the 2024 Astros’ lineup, one tasked with ending something Brown hopes is a one-year trend.

“When we started talking about it, it took (on) a life of its own and it became a thing,” Brown said. “And you know what happens in this game when you start thinking about something and it becomes a thing, it’s like it snowballs. Now guys are talking about it. Now it’s the batter’s eye and it’s all this other stuff. I think we’ll wipe the slate clean and be good next year.”

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Maldonado back?

Maldonado could be back next season, though in a different role. (Alex Trautwig / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The Astros’ affinity for Maldonado has spanned three general managers, two field managers and three different pitching coaches. Houston acquired Maldonado at consecutive trade deadlines in 2018 and 2019 before signing him to two separate contract extensions in 2019 and 2021.

It’s no surprise, then, that both Maldonado and the Astros have interest in pursuing a reunion this winter, multiple people with knowledge of the team’s thinking said this week.

Brown has already anointed Diaz the team’s primary catcher in 2024. If Maldonado does return, he is content with serving as a backup and mentor to the 25-year-old Diaz, who started just 85 games last season. Brown met with Maldonado’s agent, Dan Lozano, during the general managers’ meetings — but executives around the sport meet with almost every agent at these events.

Maldonado caught 116 games during his age-36 season, a curious division of playing time that underscored former manager Dusty Baker’s preference for veteran players and the desire from Houston’s pitching staff for Maldonado to catch them.

Maldonado, who hopes to manage when his playing days are over, has long been lauded for his game-calling and presence behind the plate, but it’s clear his time as an everyday player is over. Diaz may be the heir apparent, but it isn’t as if he’ll catch 162 games next season. Brown has prioritized finding a backup and the market for one is scarce.

Tucker Barnhart, Curt Casali, Mike Zunino and Austin Hedges are among the names available on the free-agent market, but the Astros may benefit from pairing Diaz with a player who is already intimately familiar with Houston’s pitching staff and infrastructure.

Reuniting with Maldonado would also please ace Justin Verlander, who is among Maldonado’s most vocal advocates. It’s easy to envision a scenario in which Maldonado catches most of Verlander’s starts — and perhaps some of Framber Valdez’s — while Diaz handles the rest of the workload.

(Top photo of Altuve: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)

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