CORE FOUR
CARLOS CORREA, JOSE ALTUVE, ALEX BREGMAN AND GEORGE SPRINGER ARE ONE OF BASEBALL’S MOST FORMIDABLE YOUNG QUARTETS.
Shortly before 7:10 p.m. Monday, Jeff Luhnow will take his customary front-row seat in the general manager’s suite-level box behind home plate. To his right, on the main Minute Maid Park scoreboard that dominates right field, the most potent Astros lineup since the days of Biggio and Bagwell will adorn the right side of the screen.
The complete teardown and long-term rebuild Luhnow envisioned when Astros owner Jim Crane hired him in December 2011 will manifest itself this year in a 1 through 9 that might be baseball’s best. When the Astros’ lineup is at full strength, opposing American League West pitchers won’t find much of a letup, even at the bottom of the order.
But that’s especially the case at the top, where for the first time to begin a season the Astros will have the core four position players they’ve built toward in the same lineup. In terms of youth, talent, cost and years of club control, only the Cubs and Red Sox can make legitimate cases of having a better quartet of position players under 30 than the Astros.
In shortstop Carlos Correa, second baseman Jose Altuve, third baseman Alex Bregman and outfielder George Springer, the Astros have four homegrown players between the ages of 22 and 27 who are each among the best at their positions.
Fittingly, they will bat consecutively to kick-start manager A.J. Hinch’s opening-day lineup, with the uber athletic Springer setting the table for the infield trio: the smooth-swinging Bregman, the human hit machine Altuve, and the phenom Correa.
“It’s as good as I’ve been around,” new Astros catcher and 12-year vet Brian McCann said of the team’s position-player core. “They’re athletic, powerful, (have) speed (and) work great atbats.”
Three of the four were among the first 11 players selected in their respective drafts, and the fourth, the 5-6 Altuve, is a baseball unicorn.
High draft picks pay off
Altuve, who signed 10 years ago for a mere $15,000 bonus, and Springer — the 11th overall pick in 2011 — predate Luhnow’s arrival. Correa, 22, and Bregman, 23, were acquisitions born of 100-plus-loss seasons in 2011 (106) and 2013 (111), respectively. Both were anointed as future stars before donning an Astros uniform, Correa as the top pick in 2012 out of high school and Bregman via the No. 2 selection in 2015 out of LSU.
“It’s been a long time in the works to get to this point,” Luhnow said. “Altuve’s been the constant since before I got here, but we had Angel Sanchez at shortstop in 2011 and Chris Johnson at third and Carlos Lee at first. We’ve come a long way from those days.”
Monday night’s season opener against the Seattle Mariners starts the timer on a guaranteed three-year window for this Astros’ core four to play together. Altuve is the first of the group in line to become a free agent; the extremely club-friendly extension he signed in 2013 (he will play at the bargain rate of $4.5 million this year) takes him through the 2019 season.
“Three years in baseball’s a long time,” Luhnow said.
Luhnow’s task is to maximize the Astros’ chances to win a World Series while he has this nucleus intact. That’s why in the offseason he signed Carlos Beltran and Josh Reddick and traded for McCann. It’s also why he invited criticism when he didn’t parlay prospects from a still-strong farm system to land a front-line starting pitcher.
At least not yet.
Whether the Astros can keep their young quartet together beyond the length of Altuve’s current deal is a question with which they will grapple in the coming years. Around the game this spring, teams like the Indians, Rays and Rangers have locked up young players to long-term extensions. Asked about the potential of doing the same with any of the Astros’ youngsters, Luhnow had his stock answer at the ready.
“We’re always considering it, and when we do have conversations, we don’t publicize it,” he said. “But it’s certainly something we’re constantly thinking about and discussing and reviewing.”
The here and now
For now, the Astros’ focus is understandably on this year. Altuve is coming off the best season of his career, having placed third in American League MVP voting and won his second batting title, and is set for his first full year hitting out of the three hole.
He and the cleanup-hitting Correa are undoubtedly the faces of the franchise, as star-studded a double-play combo as there is in baseball.
Correa appears poised for the MVP-caliber campaign many predicted for him before last season. The 2015 AL Rookie of the Year targeted his offseason workouts toward becoming stronger and also fine-tuned his swing and stride to put himself in better position to drive the ball. The Puerto Rican was one of the stars of the just-completed World Baseball Classic, helping his team to a runner-up finish.
“There aren’t going to be bigger expectations than the ones I’m setting for myself,” he said.
Dogged by injuries his first two seasons, Springer played his first full major league season last year. Posting an .815 on-base plus slugging percentage while playing a Gold Glove-caliber right field, he was worth 5.0 wins above replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s version of the popular metric.
The trio of Altuve (7.7), Correa (5.5) and Springer was worth 18.2 wins last season. Bregman added 1.8 WAR in 201 at-bats after his June promotion from Class AAA Fresno.
Bregman, 23, drafted with the pick the Astros were awarded after failing to sign 2014 No. 1 pick Brady Aiken, is the wild card of the quartet simply because this is the first time he is beginning the year in the majors. He might encounter similar challenges to Correa last year. Pitchers will adjust as they learn his swing, and he will be charged with adjusting back.
But the former LSU star’s natural talent isn’t in question, which is why Astros manager A.J. Hinch doesn’t mind stacking four righthanded hitters atop his lineup.
There was a stretch last season when Bregman was the team’s best hitter.
Hinch has pondered lineup configurations since early December, when the Astros capped their offseason early with the Beltran signing.
On Monday afternoon, from behind the desk in his Minute Maid Park office, the third-year Astros manager will finally put pen to paper. For the first time on an opening day, he can start with his core four.