‘REDEMPTION TOUR’
Astros’ success likely will depend on three mainstays playing like All-stars again
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On the first day off from Grapefruit League play, at half past nine in the morning, Jose Altuve arrived at the Astros’ agility field, away from any observer who might sneak in and see him.
Beyond a pair of fences and obscured by a walkway bustling with activity, Altuve started defensive drills at second base. He fielded a ground ball, turned and threw it to a coach covering the bag, repeating a fundamental he failed to execute three times last October.
Small steps back toward superstardom continued in silence. Spring training can be a chaotic cacophony of onlookers or hangers-on hoping for an up-close glimpse at greatness. The coronavirus pandemic prevented anything near that normal.
Shrouded in relative secrecy, the Astros’ superstars convened for what their general manager called a redemption tour. Four of the team’s most proven players had pitiful 2020 seasons. The club enjoyed a bevy of breakouts — from Framber Valdez to Kyle Tucker to a revolving door of rookie pitchers — but it could not thrive on them alone.
“We’re going to need a lot of depth, but it’s going to be depth, and it’s going to be quality. It’s going to have to be both of them,” general manager James Click said. “And if we don’t have superstars playing like superstars and we don’t have everyone excelling in the role that they’re in, we’re not going to be successful.”
Underperformance across 60 games last year put Houston below .500 and in real danger of missing an expanded postseason. The Astros survived to sneak into October, when the re-emergence of Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman brought the team within one game of a pennant. For those three weeks, and those alone, the Astros resembled a contender.
“We did have a lot of momentum at the end of last year,” Bregman said, “and we’re going to try to continue that into this year.”
That will require a return to normalcy. The world and sports are slowly inching toward it with each inoculation. The Astros can achieve it by Altuve staying aggressive, Bregman bashing home runs, and Correa staying healthy for a full season. Superstars drive this team and will determine its fate.
This club is built to vie for a World Series, but only if its best players rebound into something resembling superstar form. Last season, only one of them displayed anything close to his enormous potential — George Springer, who’s now in Toronto.
Springer’s absence weakens the Astros but does not rob them of a chance at another championship, assuming the team’s remaining stars don’t continue their 2020 regression. The 2021 season might tell more about the team’s long-term future than its immediate goals. Was last season an aberration or an omen for an aging core?
Excuses are easy for the 2020 season. The world grappled with a pandemic and the toll such a disaster takes. Baseball’s 60-game sample size seemed far too small to draw any absolutes. Health and safety protocols prevented hitters from studying in-game video.
Many lamented the lack of preseason preparation. Yuli Gurriel said his impending free agency weighed too much on his mind. Bregman’s strained hamstring stalled any momentum he created.
“Last year was a fluke for a lot of people,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said.
Pitchers succumbed to injuries after starting spring training, stopping and starting again — perhaps with inadequate time to get their arms ready for a major league season. The Astros lost ace Justin Verlander, closer Roberto Osuna and an army of middle relievers to injury.
But the Astros built a lineup to overcome even the most extreme adversity. Last season, it only exacerbated the issue. The team’s .720 OPS ranked ninth of 15 American League teams. Its .312 on-base percentage was 11th.
Yordan Alvarez made only nine plate appearances, but more than enough firepower remained to compensate. Not enough of it did.
Only Springer, Tucker and Michael Brantley finished with an OPS above .830.
A postseason breakout offered a sign that maybe with more games the Astros’ lineup would reappear. Altuve had a 1.129 OPS in 60 playoff plate appearances. Correa hit six home runs in 13 games.
The sample size was small, but so was the regular season in which they performed so poorly. Correa had just 14 extra-base hits in 221 regular-season plate appearances.
Few around the organization wish to speculate whether fallout from the team’s sign-stealing scandal affected Altuve’s play. Baker called him “mentally strong but also sensitive.” Whether the scandal fallout bothered him is a legitimate question — one Altuve and all members of the 2017 Astros must answer this season.
Few seem to have forgotten the Astros’ misdeeds in 2017. What impact it might have on those remaining from that team — Altuve, Correa, Gurriel and Bregman foremost among them — is a mystery.
“I’m not sure. I have no idea,” Bregman said. “What we can do is control what we can control, and that’s showing up and competing every single day. I love that fans are back in the stands. I’m super excited to have them back. Hopefully, as we get nearer toward the end of this virus, we can start to see higher capacities and more people in the stands as soon as we can get everybody safe.”