{"id":802225,"date":"2026-05-17T05:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T05:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T05:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T05:53:14","slug":"astros-notes-altuve-brown-hader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/802225\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Notes: Altuve, Brown, Hader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astros second baseman Jose Altuve<\/a><\/strong> left tonight\u2019s game against the Rangers with an apparent left side injury. Facing Cal Quantrill<\/a><\/strong> in the bottom of the eighth inning, Altuve grounded a ball to the left side but did not run to first, instead grabbing his left side and walking toward the dugout. The result was an easy double play. Altuve was later seen walking out of the dugout with the team\u2019s trainer. Nick Allen<\/a><\/strong> replaced him at the keystone in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Manager Joe Espada told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com<\/a> and others that Altuve will undergo imaging tomorrow. It\u2019s too early to say whether he\u2019ll need time on the injured list, though it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see a cautionary IL placement given Altuve\u2019s age. He is now 36 and in his 16th season in the Majors. Altuve previously went on the IL in August 2023 with left oblique discomfort, missing three weeks. His two other left side-related IL placements were in April 2022 and May 2019. Both were for left hamstring strains.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s still a veteran leader for the Astros, Altuve is no longer the hitter he was at his peak. By wRC+, he was at least 24% better than the average hitter in every season from 2014-24, with the exception of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Altuve slipped to a 113 wRC+ in 2025, which was still above average, just no longer All Star-worthy. The early returns in 2026 have been worse, with Altuve\u2019s .245\/.328\/.365 line now being 3% below average.<\/p>\n

That hardly makes him a bad player, but it does make him one of the weaker hitters in an otherwise strong offense. Yordan Alvarez<\/a><\/strong> is dominating with 14 home runs and a 190 wRC+. Christian Walker<\/a><\/strong> is having a resurgence after a poor introduction to Houston in 2025. Isaac Paredes<\/a><\/strong> is hitting well, and so was Carlos Correa<\/a><\/strong> before he underwent season-ending ankle surgery<\/a>. In contrast, Altuve is the sole veteran of the group who is below league average at the plate.<\/p>\n

Whether or not he needs to miss time, a healthy and productive Altuve will be crucial to the team\u2019s performance this year. The Astros are at 19-28 including tonight\u2019s victory, which leaves them in fourth place in the NL West. The biggest culprit for their poor start has been a slew of pitching injuries, with ace Hunter Brown<\/a><\/strong>, Christian Javier, and closer Josh Hader<\/a><\/strong> all currently on the shelf. Offseason signee Tatsuya Imai<\/a><\/strong> also missed time with right arm fatigue, and while he\u2019s healthy now, he has a 9.24 ERA in four starts.<\/p>\n

Returning to respectability will require the offense to remain a strength and the pitchers\u2019 health and performance to improve dramatically. Fortunately, the starting rotation may be closer to getting a key reinforcement. Espada said that Brown is set to throw a final live batting practice on Tuesday (link via McTaggart<\/a>). Assuming no issues there, he will begin a rehab assignment soon after.<\/p>\n

Brown made two starts before landing on the IL on April 5th with a right shoulder strain. He was projected for a 5-7 week rehab period as of April 19th, and he was formally transferred to the 60-day IL on May 9th. That makes Brown eligible to return in early June, perhaps during the June 5-7 home series against the Athletics. He\u2019d be in line for at least three rehab starts if Houston wants to bring him back as soon as possible, though they do have up to 30 days for Brown\u2019s rehab assignment. Whatever the case, the Astros\u2019 rotation will massively benefit from Brown\u2019s return if he continues his performance from last year, when he had a 2.43 ERA and finished third in AL Cy Young voting.<\/p>\n

As for Hader, he will need five more rehab appearances according to McTaggart<\/a>. Hader started the year on the IL with left biceps tendinitis, transferring to the 60-day IL in mid-April. In 52 2\/3 innings last year, he was his usual excellent self. Hader posted a 2.05 ERA and a 29.1% strikeout to walk differential that ranked fifth among qualified relievers. As with Brown, Hader is expected to return in early June according to the team\u2019s injury report<\/a> on MLB.com. That will go a long way toward boosting the Astros\u2019 bullpen, whose 5.81 ERA is dead last in the Majors.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astros second baseman Jose Altuve left tonight\u2019s game against the Rangers with an apparent left side injury. Facing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":802226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2621,28438,34542,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-802225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-hunter-brown","9":"tag-jose-altuve","10":"tag-josh-hader","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116588367569517828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}