Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
ou can argue Altuve wouldn’t be a top-20 second baseman without the assistance of trash cans and alleged buzzers, but he has batted .327 while averaging almost 19 home runs and 30 stolen bases over the past six seasons.
Even if you don’t buy the chest tattoo story, he’s MLB’s best second baseman for now.
The only second basemen who accumulated even 50 percent of Altuve’s 32.4 FanGraphs WAR during that six-year span were Brian Dozier (21.5), Robinson Cano (21.4) and Ian Kinsler (18.4), each of whom is well beyond his prime at this point.
The 2019 season was arguably Altuve’s least impressive of the six, even though he hit a career-high 31 home runs in only 124 games. But it wasn’t bad enough to drop him behind guys like LeMahieu, Albies or Marte, each of whom have only had one or two impressive seasons in their careers. It merely opened the door for that group to potentially bypass him in next year’s preseason ranking of second basemen.
Jason Slack Is a Senior Sports Writer for the Sports Core Network and also part of the Sports Core Report.
