The Astros extend Jose Altuve and start the process of locking up their core

There’s a few different reasons this past winter has been such a slog, and we’ve gone over them ad naseum over the last few months. At least one of the reasons is certainly a long-term concern, though, with teams trying to emulate the rebuilds that were perpetrated by the Cubs and Astros that paid off in recent years. Putting aside that the likelihood of repeating that type of rebuild is slimmer than teams are giving it credit for and also that the adoption of this idea is probably bad for the game, it’s impossible to deny the success. Of course, after having success with this method the next step is to make sure you can start investing that money you neglected to spend during the rebuild, putting it mostly towards the stars you hopefully acquired. The Astros started that process on Friday.

Houston is, of course, loaded with young talent all over their roster and will have to try to lock up as much of it as possible over the next few years. On Friday afternoon the team agreed to a five-year, $151 million extension with star second baseman and reigning MVP Jose Altuve. The deal will kick in starting in the 2020 season when Altuve was set to hit free agency. While there’s a good chance he may have been able to top this deal at this point, guaranteeing himself $30 million a year right now, two years before hitting the open market, is certainly good for Altuve. It’s especially good when you consider that the second baseman has been probably the most criminally underpaid player in all of baseball and will be for the next two years as well. Altuve deserved a big pay day, and he got it while also being guaranteed a job through his age-34 season.

This is also a really good deal for the team, who gets to lock up the face of the franchise and reigning MVP on what is, at worst, a market-rate deal. It is also just the first step in what should be a long and expensive process to lock up their core. That’s not to say it won’t be worth it for the Astros, though, who posted preposterously low payrolls for years in their rebuild. Now is the time to spend the money they didn’t spend back then, and while it starts with Altuve there is work to do. In the next few years, they need to do everything in their power to keep guys like Carlos Correa, George Springer, Alex Bregman and Dallas Keuchel, among others. Obviously, that’s a two-way street and the player has to be game as well, but this is step two of that big rebuild teams around the league are starting to copy. To the Astros credit, they got started with their biggest piece and have Altuve locked up through his prime.