HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Astros general manager never takes his scouting hat off, so when he saw Jose Altuve taking fly balls in left field at Daikin Park, he looked at him from a scouting standpoint.
“If I didn't know who he was, and I came out there and saw him taking fly balls, I'd have been like, ‘Hey, who's that guy?’,” Brown said Tuesday. “He caught your eye for sure.”
While he continues to take ground balls at second base, Altuve has been working out in left field for the last few weeks, and so far, he’s shown nothing to indicate he won't be able to play the outfield in 2025.
“He looks pretty good,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He’s such a good athlete that I’m not surprised by how good he’s looked.”
“He looked like he was having the time of his life,” Brown said. “He was like a little kid out there, and his jumps off the bat were really good, and so with his foot, speed playing left field, I really think he's got a chance of being pretty good. I’m not kidding.”
One area of concern for Altuve in left field could be his arm strength, which has been a weakness for him at second base, but Brown believes his arm could play better away from the infield.
“I think it's easier to throw from the outfield because you get the crow-hop and the momentum, where a lot of times on the infield, it's like you throw flat footed,” Brown said. “I don't think he'd have problems throwing… He could at least hit the cut off man.”
The possibility of Altuve playing left field being made public was linked to a possible reunion with free agent third baseman Alex Bregman last month, but re-signing Bregman seems to be becoming more and more unlikely.
Brown mentioned Bregman in the past tense twice during brief remarks at the team’s media luncheon on Tuesday and told reporters during a nine-minute question and answer session that he and Bregman’s agent, Scott Boras, haven’t spoken recently.
“We're continuing to have internal conversations cause he's still available,” Brown clarified. “We're just wondering when he's going to make a decision, but the fact that he's available, we still have conversations about him.”
If Altuve plays the outfield and Bregman doesn’t re-sign, Espada mentioned 2023 Utility Gold Glove winner Mauricio Dubón and rookie Shay Whitcomb as possibilities to play second base, along with non-roster invitees Zack Short and Jesús Bastidas.