Alvarez ponders life as club’s No. 2 hitter
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Yordan Alvarez found it funny at first. For five years, the slugger has made his home in the middle of the Astros’ lineup. This offseason, new manager Joe Espada approached him with an idea: moving up to the No. 2 spot in the order.
“At the beginning of the conversation, I thought he was just joking,” Alvarez said through an interpreter Tuesday. “Obviously, I never hit there before. So whenever he said that, I would just chuckle and laugh.
“But the closer we got to spring training, he kept mentioning it. And I asked him later, ‘You’re being serious?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m being serious about it.’ ”
Espada, in fact, was giving Alvarez an early heads-up about the plan he will experiment with this spring. The first-year manager said Sunday that his ideal lineup this season will begin with Jose Altuve, Alvarez, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, a change from recent years when Alvarez mostly batted third or fourth.
Alvarez has started one major league game in the second spot. He said he can’t remember ever batting that high in an order. Espada did not deem the move set in stone. But Alvarez made clear Tuesday he is open to giving it a shot.
“Let’s try it. Let’s see,” Alvarez said. “To me, really nothing’s going to change. I’m going to have the same approach up there. So the batting order’s just a number.”
Espada, in explaining the change, said he envisions Altuve and Alvarez forming “that 1-2 punch in your face” atop the lineup. Both players missed stints to injuries last season but paced Astros hitters in OPS. Altuve posted a .915 OPS in 90 games; Alvarez had a .990 OPS in 114 games.
Tuesday offered a first glimpse at the new lineup — and, for Alvarez, at one looming adjustment. Altuve, the notoriously aggressive leadoff man, grounded out on the first pitch he saw in the Astros’ Grapefruit League game against the Nationals. That brought Alvarez to the plate one pitch into the first inning.
“Hitting behind Altuve doesn’t really feel like you’re hitting second in the lineup,” Alvarez said. “He’s a guy that’s hit third in the past, so it still feels a little bit like you’re hitting fourth.
“But with him, obviously, he’s a guy that likes to swing quickly. So I had to get up there and get ready quickly as well.”
Alvarez, playing in his first Grapefruit League game this spring, took three plate appearances. He walked and struck out in his first two times up, then lined a sharp single to center field in his third. Alvarez noted it was his first time facing live pitching, as he did not take part in any live batting practices in camp.
Alvarez owns a .407 on-base percentage over the past two seasons. Among qualified MLB hitters, only Aaron Judge (.417) and Freddie Freeman (.408) have higher ones. Batting Alvarez second should create chances for Bregman and Tucker to bat with at least one runner on base. For Alvarez, that could mean more action on the basepaths.
“I’ve got to prepare for that a little bit mentally,” Alvarez said. “I know Bregman and Tucker, they’re going to produce. So I’ve got to get ready to run as well.”
No. 5 hole could be Abreu’s new home
For the first time this spring, Espada wrote out a lineup Tuesday that could largely resemble the one the first-year Astros manager assembles on opening day.
Altuve, Alvarez, Bregman and Tucker slotted into the first four spots for Houston’s Grapefruit League game against the Nationals. José Abreu manned the fifth spot, and Espada indicated that is where he is considering slotting the first baseman entering this season.
“I really like the way Abreu finished the season last year,” Espada said. “I like his history of what he has done, how productive he’s been for so many years. So I do like him right now hitting behind Tucker, yes.”
Abreu had the worst offensive season of his career in 2023, posting a .237/.296/.383 slash line over 141 games. He did mount a late surge, slugging .536 with seven home runs in 26 games in the last month of the regular season and hitting .295 with four home runs in 11 postseason games.
Former manager Dusty Baker batted Abreu, who signed a three-year, $58.5 million contract before last season, in the cleanup spot for much of the first two months before dropping him to fifth or sixth later in the year in acknowledgment of his struggles.
Abreu still took the third-most plate appearances among Astros hitters with runners in scoring position. He proved more productive in those situations, slashing .275/.350/ .556, and ended the season with 90 RBIs as a result of both those numbers and his volume of chances with men on base.
The Astros believe Abreu, who dealt with a recurring back injury much of last season, can benefit from more rest and intend to give him that via starts at DH or off days this season.
Urquidy working to mask pitches
José Urquidy played with the pitch clock in his AL Division Series start against the Twins last October. At times, the Astros right-hander waited until the timer’s final seconds to step on the rubber, almost seeming to walk into his pitching motion.
Wanting to present Twins hitters Carlos Correa and Christian Vázquez, both former Astros teammates, a different look was one factor in the strategy, Urquidy said Tuesday. But it was also to help mask an issue. Urquidy said he tipped pitches at times after returning in August from a shoulder injury.
“Sometimes,” Urquidy said. “With the glove, squeezing the glove and doing different movements. And it’s something that I’m fixing up right now and this offseason, too.”
Urquidy posted a 5.35 ERA in 10 regular-season outings, including four starts, after his absence. He said Astros staff alerted him to how he might be tipping pitches, and he worked during the winter to address that and to strengthen the shoulder/lat area that sidelined him for three months.
Urquidy did author two key starts late in the year. He worked six scoreless innings in the regularseason finale as the Astros clinched the AL West and was the winning pitcher in the ALDS clincher, allowing two runs over 52⁄3 innings in Minnesota. He allowed four runs in 41⁄3 innings in the ALCS against Texas.
Urquidy enters this spring ticketed for a spot in Houston’s rotation. He said another offseason focus was to improve his sinker, a pitch he threw just 9.7% of the time last season but that could be an important option for him against right-handed hitters.
Righties slashed .292/ .349/.474 last season against Urquidy, compared to a .215/.311/.419 slash line by lefties. Urquidy mostly relied on his four-seam fastball and slider against right-handers and throwing the sinker that runs in toward righties presents a different look.
“Last year I threw some, and I saw very weak contact,” Urquidy said. “That’s a priority. Throw that when I have runners on base, trying to look for the double play or something. Looking for that weak contact.”