Michael Shapiro is a sports reporter for Chron, covering the Astros, Rockets, Texans and every team in town. Michael is a Denver native and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and a noted fan of pull-up threes, wide-receiver passes and a good hot fudge sundae.

Altuve, who stands 5-foot-6, has never played the outfield at any point over his more than 15,000 defensive innings.

Moving a star second baseman to the outfield in the later stage of his career is unusual. For the Houston Astros, it is not unprecedented. It was 22 years ago that Craig Biggio made the move at age 37,