Astros Former MVP Has Contract Starting To Look Worse and Worse

The Houston Astros have been counting on their star, Jose Altuve, to provide consistent production for years.

More often than not, he has delivered when the team needed him most.

The 2017 American League MVP has put up some big numbers in his career, a key cog in the team’s two World Series victories.

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Given how much he has provided the franchise, it wasn’t all too surprising to see the Astros commit to Altuve long-term, essentially ensuring he will remain with the franchise for the duration of his career.

Ahead of the 2024 campaign, the two sides agreed to a five-year, $125 million extension that will keep him under contract through 2029.

It is already a deal that the team could be coming to regret for several reasons.

For starters, Altuve produced a .790 OPS last season, the first time he failed to reach .800 since 2013, excluding the 2020 campaign, which was shortened and impacted by COVID-19.

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Thus far this season, he has been even less productive with a .737 OPS that has been buoyed with some MVP-level production over the last few weeks.

From May 22 through June 18, Altuve had a 1.036 OPS, hitting home runs and recording RBI at a remarkable pace of 54 and 135 over a 162-game season.

However, it is fair to wonder if this level of production will ever be more than for a few random stretches a year now that he is 35 years old.

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“That rough start to 2025 came on the heels of a 2024 campaign that already definitively was not one of Altuve's best…That made those first 49 games feel like less of a slow start and more a rapid continuation of the Father Time-mandated decline,” wrote Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report in a piece naming Altuve as one of the most cringy contracts in the MLB in 2025.

Another reason the Astros could come to regret agreeing to an extension with Altuve is that it played a part in costing them third baseman Alex Bregman.

The team didn’t have the means to retain him in free agency this past winter, so he signed a deal with the Boston Red Sox. Their salary cap situation also played a part in right fielder Kyle Tucker being traded to the Chicago Cubs.

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With waning production at the plate, Altuve’s impact on the team isn’t a positive one. Combined with his struggles defensively, he is producing a -0.3 bWAR thus far in 2025, which would be a career low mark.

Houston has still found a way to succeed on the field, leading the American League West by 6.5 games entering play on June 30.

But the Altuve situation is something to keep an eye on, certainly. If he isn’t hitting, he becomes difficult to rely on as an everyday contributor, given the lack of production defensively.

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