Astros' José Altuve to Make 2023 Season Debut vs. A's After Thumb Injury Rehab
May 19, 2023
The surging Houston Astros are going to get a big boost in their lineup Friday when José Altuve makes his 2023 debut.
The team announced Friday afternoon Altuve has been activated from the injured list after he missed 43 games because of a broken thumb suffered in the World Baseball Classic.
The injury occurred when Altuve, who was playing for Venezuela, was hit by a pitch from Team USA reliever Daniel Bard in the fifth inning of the WBC quarterfinal on March 18.
Astros general manager Dana Brown announced on March 22 that Altuve was given an estimated timetable of two months to resume baseball activities after he had surgery.
"Some guys heal faster than other guys, and he seems to be one of those guys," Brown said at the time. "After that, we'll assess and hopefully he's coming along well. It looks like it's going to be about two months."
Speaking to Jim Bowden of The Athletic and CBS Sports HQ on April 23, Brown said Altuve was "ahead of schedule" and would "get an X-Ray in 12 days or so to see how the thumb is healing but appears that it's healing very well."
Altuve began his rehab assignment on May 12 with Triple-A Sugar Land. He played three games with them before joining the Double-A squad in Corpus Christi for two games.
The 2017 AL MVP only had two hits in 22 at-bats in five minor league appearances, but the only thing that really mattered is he was able to make it through those games without incident.
Altuve's return comes as the reigning World Series champs have started playing much better. They have won four straight games and seven of eight overall since May 9. They enter Friday with a 24-19 record, two games behind the Texas Rangers for the top spot in the AL West.
Getting Altuve back allows manager Dusty Baker the chance to tinker with his lineup. He could be used at DH initially to ease him back in, which would allow Yordan Alvarez to play first base and send José Abreu to the bench.
Abreu has been one of the biggest free-agent busts so far after he signed a three-year, $58.5 million contract in November. He's hitting .220/.269/.262 with zero homers in 164 at-bats.
Altuve hit .300/.387/.533 with 28 homers and 18 stolen bases in 141 regular-season games last year.