Jose Altuve batting third last year lit up the major leagues and finished in the top three in the A.L. MVP race, but now it's time to return him back to his roots, he needs to leadoff for the Houston Astros in 2017.
In the Dark Knight detective Jim Gordon said it best when he was referring to Batman, "he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now."
Altuve was the hero the Astros needed last year. They needed offense, so he stepped up to the plate and belted out a career-high 24 homers and 96 RBI's but that's not what they need any more from him.
After the Astros massive offseason when they grabbed boppers, Josh Reddick, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran, driving in runs doesn't have to fall solely on Altuve's shoulders anymore.
The bigger need for the team going into 2017 will be having baserunners on for all of the heavy hitters in the middle of the order.
George Springer did a fine job for the Astros last year leading off, but he's not a guarantee to get on base the way Altuve has been throughout his career.
Altuve gets on base 40% of the time and on top of that, more often than naught he's going to be on second or third base because of his ability to steal bases.
The Astros have a whole lot of options to bat third next season and while none are Altuve, they'd do just fine in his stead.
Having Altuve bat leadoff would not only serve as a big upgrade over Springer, but it's also somewhere he can have a pretty big impact.
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