The grass was greener in Chicago once. It’s got to be greener on the American League favorites’ side of the street now.
Florida’s West Palm Beach The top of Jose Abreu‘s hair has grown longer, and this will be his first gray hair. He can’t possibly be growing older.
In the Astros spring training clubhouse, he stated, “No, I’m older now, but I still have the passion that made me want to play baseball.” The 37-year-old man had a wry smile on his face. I feel youthful as a result.
In August of last year, Abreu celebrated the tenth anniversary of his Cuban defection during his rookie season with the Astros. It will soon be ten years since he started the White Sox rookie of the year campaign.
Back then, things were more favorable in Chicago. The American League favorites’ side of the street must be greener now.
“But I don’t want to say that,” he said via a translator. “I obviously had a lot of fans in Chicago and they were great, and I don’t want to disrespect them. But I’m here, I’m happy here and everyone here has been supporting me from the beginning, so I think I’m in the right spot.”
The former MVP was still hurt by the Sox’s “disrespect” early in the spring of last year, and he choked up attempting to express his sentiments for the big-league team that had given him nine seasons of championship play. Any tears have dried up a long time ago. As he got ready for the second season of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, Abreu crossed off winning his first playoff series in 2023. He is more eager than ever to win a World Series ring after losing to the Rangers, who are vying for the pennant.
With closer Josh Hader augmenting a star-studded roster, the Astros look to have strengthened their core. More starts from 41-year-old Justin Verlander—a 2023 trade deadline reacquisition—and more swings from slugger Yordan Alvarez, who missed 48 games in the previous season would be very beneficial.
Better output from Abreu would also help. While his 18 home runs and 90 RBI didn’t seem like enough in the end, his first season with the Astros wasn’t the best. However, he got out to a rocky start and didn’t score a home run until May 28, finally breaking a 260 at-bat slump. Upon reaching the board at last, he dashed around the bases and fell through the ground in front of the dugout, emerging into a throng of ecstatic teammates.
He described it as “a release of stress,” but what he would remember most is the support of his colleagues.
From September 1 onward, Abreu was at his most prolific over a span of 26 games, hitting seven home runs and totaling 28 RBI. He hit.207 throughout the season when the bases were empty,.272 when there were men on base, and.275 (with a.906 OPS) when there were runners in scoring position. He can still get them in if you get them on and over.
Abreu produced 13 hits, four home runs, and 13 RBI in 44 at-bats throughout the postseason. That was really amazing and very satisfying.
“I’m a person that doesn’t give up,” he said.
As many games as he can, Joe Espada, the new manager, intends to keep Abreu at first base. However, the Astros were worried last season, when Espada was Dusty Baker’s bench coach, that Abreu could have been pushing himself too much. Espada is urging Abreu to lessen the intensity of his pregame preparations.
“I expect him to be better this year,” Espada said. “I think last year he really wanted to show what he was all about, and he did that with his makeup and his toughness, but I think we can protect him a little bit more by being smart about his workload. … Sometimes they just think more is better, but sometimes less with better quality is the right amount.”
There still are hints of hard feelings toward the Sox for, as Abreu believes, forcing his hand to leave in free agency.
“But I landed here with one of the three best teams in the whole major leagues,” he said. “Every season, everyone says, ‘They’re always trying to win.’ I think the biggest thing I got was respect from [owner] Jim Crane and the respect I got from [advisor Jeff] Bagwell. You can’t really replace that.”
He’d rather not get into why the Sox’ perceived championship window closed as fast — and unpleasantly — as it did.
“I guess from the outside looking in, things might look really easy, might look really pretty,” he said before trailing off.
“I’m not entirely sure why things didn’t work out. I don’t want to comment on it or show disrespect to anyone in any way. However, I believe that our shared objective is to advance and strive for victory. To be successful, I’m going to strive to stick exactly to my strategy, which I have.
A player who was a rookie at the age of 27 will never have his career defined by milestone offensive totals, but Abreu has 39 home runs from 300 games and 47 RBI from 1,000. There is nothing wrong with that.
It’s a culmination of everyone I’ve known since I was a child, including my mother and wife in addition to those in the sport. You can’t accomplish it by yourself, remarked the man. “I’m quite fortunate and still have fun with the game. Let’s aim higher.
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