Jose Altuve is a combination of two great Yankees infielders
In case you hadn’t noticed, Houston second baseman Jose Altuve is essentially having Derek Jeter’s career — without the early championships.
Altuve, at age 27, went into Tuesday with 936 games played and 1,200 hits. Jeter completed his age-27 season with exactly 936 games played and 1,199 hits. That is arguably more impressive for Altuve in this age of shifts, which is perhaps why his OPS-plus is 125 compared to 122 at the same point for Jeter.
Jeter stole 135 bases at a 77 percent success rate, Altuve has 223 steals at a 78 percent clip. Jeter walked more, but also struck out more. Jeter, at this stage, had 99 homers compared to 76 for Altuve. But Jeter never hit 20 in consecutive seasons, which Altuve almost certainly will do in 2016-17.
In fact, Altuve is morphing into the other great Yankees middle infielder of the era. Robinson Cano had 1,121 hits through Game 936, but already 125 homers and — at 28 — he was just entering his best power period, as it seems Altuve is now, as well.
Altuve has been overshadowed, maybe by his lack of size (he is listed, perhaps generously, at 5-6) or by having Carlos Correa as a double-play partner or by not playing in a huge baseball market such as New York or Boston or Chicago. But he already has more hits through an age-27 season than Jeter and before this season is over should pass Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski, Tim Raines, Sam Crawford, Eddie Collins, Eddie Mathews, Stan Musial, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, Cal Ripken, Johnny Bench and perhaps George Brett.
In other words, don’t miss it, because we are watching a player in his prime on both a 3,000-hit and Cooperstown arc.