Houston Astros: Five most important players to the 2018 season

Jose Altuve, 2B

A list of the most important members of the Houston Astros would simply be incomplete without Jose Altuve. He is the heart and soul of this team and will be for a long, long time. He was banged up a little bit this year but he was still the Astros’ best hitter this year.

Not only was Altuve banged up but when he was healthy he just wasn’t as good this year as he had been in years past. Let me be clear, Altuve’s “not as good” is still light years better than the average professional hitter. He finished 2018 with a .316/.386/.451 slash line with 169 hits, 13 home runs, and 17 stolen bases.

A lot of his numbers this year were either career worsts or the worst numbers he’s had in four years. However, a lot of that can probably be contributed to his injury as he did appear to play through after coming off the disabled list.

Regardless, individual stats don’t necessarily dictate importance to this 2018 Astros team. The Astros lost more games without Altuve than they won. That, right there, shows the value of this team without Altuve.

Not having him on the field made this team worse and having him back, even at a limited capacity the last 5+ weeks of the regular season and the playoffs, made this team better. That being said since he was hurt and did miss time he’s only the fourth most important player on this team so let’s continue on.