WEST PALM BEACH, Fla — Nothing signals the start of a spring training schedule like a split-squad. The Houston Astros will open Grapefruit League play with one on Saturday morning, when one team will host the Washington Nationals at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches and another will travel to Port St. Lucie to face the New York Mets.
Games will break the monotony of an otherwise mundane camp, which seems silly to say given the face of Houston’s franchise is attempting to switch positions. Jose Altuve’s work in left field has captured almost all of the attention of fans both within West Palm Beach and following from afar.
An otherwise entrenched roster and few injuries have allowed Altuve’s work to dominate the discourse. The battle at second base and for the final few roster spots should soon nudge their way into that discussion. Two candidates in those competitions are already sidelined, somewhat thinning the candidate pool.
Reliever Kaleb Ort’s sore left oblique is not healing as quickly as team officials hoped. According to a league source, outfielder Taylor Trammel injured his calf on Friday, though the severity is unknown. Trammel required a golf cart ride back to the clubhouse following his injury on a back field.
Here are a few other observations from the first four days of full-squad workouts
Altuve is embracing this left-field experiment with the energy of someone half his age, bouncing around between drills, begging for extra work and — in some cases — receiving some resistance from above.
It stands to reason that Altuve, who turns 35 in May, is exerting more energy during this spring training than any of the 14 that preceded it. Infielders are confined to their small areas of the diamond, where quick, lateral movement is more prevalent. Altuve’s work in the outfield requires far more running.
During every workout, Altuve is wearing a Catapult vest that allows the team to track how far he runs and his maximum speed. The team’s strength and conditioning staff communicates with the coaches to construct a sensible plan to keep Altuve from over-exerting.
For example, during Friday’s workout, Altuve did not participate in baserunning drills alongside the rest of the major-league team, instead doing lighter cardio work with a strength coach in shallow right field.
“We are keeping a close eye on the volume,” manager Joe Espada said on Friday. “He has run a lot of yards the first three or four days, so we are holding him back throughout the day just to make sure we control the volume. He’s getting after it.”
Of the 32 infielders who made at least 500 throws last season, only Gleyber Torres had a weaker arm than Altuve, who averaged 75.5 mph on the 553 throws he made. Altuve’s hardest throw registered at 81.3 mph, the lowest among that group of 32 players.
Playing in such close proximity to first base allowed Altuve and the Astros to mask his declining arm strength. Moving to the outfield will only accentuate it, a fact Friday’s workout only made clear.
Houston drilled live cut-off and relay throws for the first time in camp, forcing Altuve to confront the biggest hurdle in his transition — and perhaps showing the best way to navigate it.
Altuve’s right arm isn’t going to transform into a strength in five weeks. Shortening the distance he must cover is crucial. Enter shortstop Jeremy Peña, whose arm will become a far bigger focus whenever Altuve plays left field.
It stands to reason the Astros will position Peña deeper than most cut-off men to give Altuve a closer target. That Peña averaged 80.3 mph on the 680 throws he made last season and maxed out at 88.3 mph suggests he can handle longer throws this setup will force.
Aside from one throw he rushed toward the end of Friday’s drills, Altuve showed surprisingly competent arm strength and accuracy. Peña caught every ball but one on a line. Most arrived on target and toward the middle of Peña’s chest.
Drawing broad conclusions from one day of drills in February is silly. Bigger tests for Altuve will come with fans in the stands and no prior knowledge of where a ball may be hit, but many left the field encouraged by what transpired.
Few people have been more vocal during full-squad workouts than new third-base coach Tony Perezchica, a man Espada hired in hopes of bringing a new voice and vision to Houston’s baserunning and defense. The team’s emphasis on better baserunning is apparent, be it by their pre-workout drills or the some of live running action seen during live batting practice sessions
Perezchica has had various groups of infielders out for early work on turf fields and is taking total command of full-team infield drills, a job once reserved for Espada himself. Perezchica has spent individual time with both Cam Smith and Brice Matthews, the team’s two most touted infield prospects.
“I’m working a lot more on defense than I ever have and that’s a good thing. I take pride in that,” Smith said. “With Tony, the main thing is glove presentation, positioning facing the field instead of facing the batter to set up your angles better so you’re not cutting yourself off from the glove side ball.”
One snapshot summarized the Astros’ offseason and set social media ablaze. Both Smith and Kyle Tucker wore wide, sly smiles, summarizing the odd scene of taking a picture with the person for whom you were traded.
The Astros’ offseason in a photograph pic.twitter.com/yqbyCThtRq
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) January 14, 2025
“We’ve been cool for a little while, but you definitely know about it,” Smith said this week. “You can’t hide it. It’s just funny.”
Tucker and Smith are both Florida natives who are represented by Excel Sports Management. The two first met last winter at a facility in Tampa where many of the agency’s players train.
Both trained there again this offseason, one that featured Tucker traded to the Cubs in exchange for a three-player package Smith headlined.
“You’re going to love everybody over there,” Smith said Tucker told him. “They’re great humans.”
“And, so far, he’s right. Everybody’s been great and very welcoming.”
Smith has played just 32 professional games and is in his first major-league spring training. If he has any nerves, Smith is a master at hiding them. Staying primarily at third base has helped, Smith said. So has more advice he received from Tucker.
“Don’t press about results,” Smith said Tucker told him. “It’s easy to get caught up in that, looking at that scoreboard and the big number up there, but he said ‘You want to get hot at the right time — that’s Opening Day.’ Obviously you want to do good, but don’t press too much about instant results in spring training.”
Mauricio Dubón and Jon Singleton may share the time-honored spring training title of “best shape of my life.” Dubón reported to camp at 190 lbs, up from his listed weight of 173 last season.
Singleton, meanwhile, has slimmed down. His exact weight is unclear, but one look at him reveals how transformative of a winter he had.
Whether it’s enough to win a roster spot is still a mystery. Singleton does hit left-handed, which is an advantage on a very right-handed heavy roster, but his lack of versatility and Houston’s sudden needs at second base may change how the club constructs its roster.
However, if the team decides to deploy Dubón at second base in an everyday role, carrying the left-handed hitting Luis Guillorme to serve as a utilityman could still free a spot for a fellow lefty swinger.
(Photo of Jose Altuve from the Astros’ Feb. 20 photo day: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
