Houston Astros Legend Achieves Another Hall-Of-Fame Worthy Milestone

Jose Altuve became the fifth player to do this as the Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners on Friday.

May 3, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Another game, another career milestone for Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve.

During Friday’s game with the Seattle Mariners, Altuve stole his 300th career base. With that, he joined an elite group of Baseball Hall of Famers.

The right-handed hitting second baseman, who turns 34 on Monday, became the fifth player to have at least 2,000 hits, 400 doubles, 200 home runs and 300 stolen bases with a career batting average in the .300s (Altuve was batting .308 for his career going into the game).

Per Space City Sports Network, the four players that Altuve joined are Derek Jeter, Paul Molitor, Willie Mays and Roberto Alomar.

Jeter, Molitor and Mays also finished their careers with at least 3,000 hits.

Altuve is off to an incredible start, as he finished Friday’s action with a  .348 batting average after he went 1-for-4 with an RBI. He also has seven home runs and 12 RBI.

His hot start is a great bounce-back from last season, when he started on the injured list after suffering an injury playing for his native Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. He did another short stint on the injured list in July.

Even though he started the season from behind, he had another Altuve-like season. He slashed .311/.393/.522/.915 with 17 home runs and 51 RBI. Along the way he became the third Astros player to reach 2,000 career hits, joining Astros legends and Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Altuve also hit for the cycle.

The Astros committed this offseason to ensure that Altuve would remain in Houston for the rest of his career by signing him to a five-year contract extension from 2025-29, a deal that included a $15 million signing bonus, $30 million each of the first three seasons of the extension and then $10 million in each of the final two seasons in 2029 and 2030.

With that deal, Altuve set a record, becoming the first second baseman to make $300 million for his career.

He is a two-time World Series champion, the 2017 American League MVP, an eight-time AL All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger selection and a Gold Glove winner.