Carlos Correa at second base?<\/p>\n
In 15 professional seasons, the Houston Astros star has played shortstop and third base, but never appeared on the right side of the infield.<\/p>\n
All that might soon change.<\/p>\n
As the Astros ponder how to align their defense if Correa returns from left-ankle surgery in the final week, one possibility is using him at second, according to a person briefed on the team\u2019s deliberations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that haven\u2019t been announced.<\/p>\n
Correa, who turns 32 a week from Tuesday, said last week he has not taken ground balls at any position other than third base. Manager Joe Espada said Correa would play third upon his return. But the Astros, seeking to put together their best possible defense, view Correa as potentially a better solution at second than Jose Altuve or Isaac Paredes.<\/p>\n
Who the Astros should hire as their next GM<\/p>\n
Keith Law<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it would work: When Yordan Alvarez is in left field, the Astros would keep Paredes at third and Jeremy Pe\u00f1a at shortstop while playing Correa at second, Christian Walker at first and Altuve at DH.<\/p>\n
Pe\u00f1a and Correa would effectively give the Astros two shortstops up the middle, and the team is confident Correa\u2019s baseball IQ would make him more viable at second than Paredes, who has limited experience at the position and is considered a liability there. Altuve, meanwhile, is minus-16 defensive runs saved this season at second, the worst of any player at that spot. Espada has routinely removed Altuve late in games when the Astros are leading\u00a0and replaced him with utilityman Nick Allen for defensive purposes.<\/p>\n
When Alvarez is the DH, Correa would be at third, Pe\u00f1a at short, Altuve at second and Paredes at first, potentially costing Walker playing time. Alvarez twisted his right ankle Thursday and was out of the lineup Friday, but his issue is not believed to be serious.<\/p>\n
In the final week, the Astros will play two games in Seattle and four in Sacramento \u2014 ballparks where left field is not particularly difficult. If Correa is healthy enough to return, the Astros could put their experiment into effect then, playing him at second and Alvarez in left as a dress rehearsal for the postseason. Alvarez, who is approaching a career-high in games played, has started 22 games in left field this season. Last month at Citi Field, Alvarez started consecutive games there for the first time all season \u2014 perhaps a trial balloon for the possibility of Correa\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
The next several days will be critical for Correa. He is scheduled to take between eight and 10 at-bats Saturday in live batting practice at the Astros\u2019 spring-training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla. If all goes well, the plan is for him to play several games in a Triple-A rehabilitation assignment next week.<\/p>\n
Out since May 4, Correa has appeared in only 32 games this season. Before his injury, he was batting .279 with three homers and a .787 OPS.<\/p>\n
Chandler Rome contributed reporting to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Correa at second base? In 15 professional seasons, the Houston Astros star has played shortstop and third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,11250,5163,591,85],"class_list":["post-889627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-houston-astros","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}