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.

Though still in a tentative stage, the Jose Altuve-in-left field experiment is underway. Two weeks remain until the Houston Astros hold their first full-squad workout of spring training. But in Houston,

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

Jose Altuve seeing time in left field next season? It might not be contingent on Alex Bregman returning, Houston Astros GM Dana Brown said Tuesday.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said he expects Altuve to take reps practicing as a left fielder next month during the team's Spring Training in West Palm Beach, Florida. Altuve has never logged a game in the outfield across his 14 MLB seasons, and he's logged just two starts at shortstop, his only non-second-base position to date.