The Heart to a Dynasty : The Josè Altuve Series Pt. 3

Last week we looked into how Josè Altuve blossomed into a Major League star, now we'll dive into his great success from 2017 to the present day in 2023. In 2017, the Astros had just won their first World Series championship, and fast forward to 2023 with the Astros just making the postseason for the 7th time in a row and are AL West division champs for the sixth time in 7 years.

2017

The 2017 MLB season was a year to remember for Altuve. He batted .346 to win the Batting Title, along with leading the American league with 204 hits. Josè would also go on to match his 2016 total tying his career high with 24 home runs. Some other notable stats from his year were 81 runs batted in, 32 stolen bases, and a .957 OPS.

The city of Houston had just been hit by the devastating Hurricane Harvey in late August 2017, so the Astros were playing for the pride of the city and to give their fans something to root for during the hard times of the city's rebuild. With Altuve's community work and charity along with his efforts after Harvey, Altuve was announced as the winner of the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award on September 19th to showcase the player "who best exemplifies the giving character" of the all-time great Lou Gehrig.

Credit: MLB

Above all, the Astros had a magical 2017 postseason run, and Altuve was at the center of it. Throughout all three stages in the postseason playing in all 18 games, he batted .310 with seven home runs, 14 runs batted in. Particularly, Josè Altuve started off the postseason with a bang in Game 1 of the ALDS. Playing against the Boston Red Sox, Josè hit two home runs off of their All-Star ace Chris Sale, and then another home run off of reliever Austin Maddox to bring his total to three for the game and lead the Astros to a 8-2 victory. The 'Stros would win the series against the Red Sox in four games as Altuve batted .533 with eight hits in four games, three of which being from his home run barrage in game one.

Then, the Yankees were up next in the ALCS, and Houston came away victorious in seven games with Altuve batting .320 with another two home runs and four runs batted in. Having earned their second World Series trip in the team's history, the Astros would finish the job and win their first World Series title in franchise history after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7, winning the series four games to three.

After the World Series concluded, Josè would also go on to be named a Silver Slugger to go along with being named an All-Star mid-season for his fifth All-Star Game appearance in his career. Furthermore, he would also win the AL MVP by a landslide over Yankees' Aaron Judge and Guardians Josè Ramirez.

Credit: Bleacher Report

Being named MVP of his league capped off an historic season that Altuve will never forget. From the dreams of playing in the Major Leagues and the passion he and his dad had for the sport growing up during Altuve's childhood in Venezuela, this was the ultimate goal any player hopes to achieve. Also, Altuve was Houston's longest tenured player, playing for them for seven years since making his debut in 2011. So, from being the best player on the worst team in baseball in the early 2010s and experiencing the pain that comes with constantly losing year after year and the frequent overcoming of rejections and obstacles throughout his childhood and the start of his career, Altuve more than earned this.

2018-2019

While Altuve's form dipped slightly in the 2018 season, he would still go on to bat .316, with 13 home runs, 61 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases. Altuve would be named an All-Star for the fifth season running, and sixth time overall, and win his fifth overall Silver Slugger as well. He would finish 13th in the AL MVP voting as the Astros would win their second consecutive AL West division title with a record of 103-59. The Astros would ultimately lose to the Red Sox in the ALCS, but this was still just the start of a prolonged run of success for the Astros and Altuve.

2019 was perhaps one of the most dominant regular seasons ever by the Astros as they finished with a franchise record 107 wins. Altuve's average dipped slightly to .298, but he produced an insane power output totaling a career high 31 home runs. However, Altuve would only notch 6 stolen bases, which signals a mid-career play style shift of focusing more on driving and elevating the ball for home runs, and not being as aggressive on the basepaths as he once was. Altuve did achieve any awards for the 2019 season, but the Astros would have another dominant postseason. They won the ALDS in five games over the Tampa Bay Rays, and then won in six games over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series as Altuve would be named the ALCS MVP for batting .348 with two home runs and three runs batted in in 27 plate appearances. The Astros would then lose a back-and -forth battle against the Washington Nationals as they won their first World Series in franchise history. On the bright side, Altuve would go on to collect 10 hits throughout the seven games series and batted .303 with three doubles.

Why Josè Altuve is the Heartbeat to the Astros' Dynasty?

While there were many stars and seemingly "franchise players" on the Astros throughout their success of making two World Series trips from 2017-2019, Altuve came to the forefront as one the team's leaders. There are a multitude of reasons for why this is, but here are a few. Despite his small stature making one think how he is a team leader, Altuve shines and leads through his hard work and positive attitude. This permeates throughout the entire team and coaching staff. Also, Josè is just plain good, and he has been consistently good too. Even though the 'Stros were not that great early in the decade, Altuve remained committed to the team and produced. Six All-Star appearances, five Silver Sluggers at his position, and multiple 200 plus hit/ .300 plus batting average seasons in his first nine seasons in the big leagues can turn heads. Paired with the fact that Altuve is an awesome human being and has done numerous community initiatives in the city of Houston and his home country of Venezuela, how can he not be the heartbeat and spark plug to all the success, awards, and titles the Astros have won.

Credit: Houston Chronicle

Next week's article will be part 4 and the finale of this series. We will look at Altuve's fluke 2020 season and then go through 2021 to 2023 seasons as Altuve regained his form and contributed to more deep Houston postseason runs and their second and counting World Series title in 2022.

Make sure to tune in and save the date of October 9th for the finale!

References:

Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/altuvjo01.shtml

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Houston_Astros_season