If any player in Major League Baseball should have the attentive ear of his team’s owner, it’s Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve.

Altuve is 34 and has five more years under contract. He’s been with the franchise through thick and thin, signing as a 16-year-old amateur in 2007, debuting four years later amid a trying rebuild, then evolving into an MVP as the team ascended into a modern-day dynasty.

The Astros’ run of seven consecutive American League Championship Series appearances came to a stunning end Wednesday when they were eliminated in a two-game Wild Card sweep by the upstart Detroit Tigers.

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After the game, Altuve was asked by reporters about the fate of Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, a pending free agent.

“In my mind, there is not a chance this is his last game,” Altuve said of Bregman, via Chandler Rome of The Athletic. “He gave a lot to this organization so it’s time for us as an organization to pay him back and make him stay here.”

In a follow-up question, Altuve was asked if he plans to relay that message to Astros owner Jim Crane.

“For sure,” Altuve said, via Rome.

The 2024 season was the last in Bregman’s five-year, $100 million contract. A two-time All-Star, he’s spent his entire career in Houston and contributed mightily to the Astros’ ALCS success. Along with Altuve, the pair has appeared in each of their seven ALCS appearances.

In 98 career postseason games, Bregman has hit 19 home runs and driven in 54 runs, at times carrying the team. He slugged .692 in the Astros’ seven-game ALCS loss to the eventual champion Texas Rangers last year.

Now 30, it will be fascinating to see how teams value Bregman as he nears the back side of the typical MLB aging curve.

Bregman has been a remarkably consistent power hitter in the regular season, hitting 23, 25, and 26 home runs each of the last three years. Some teams might be deterred by what appeared to be an atypical lack of plate discipline in 2024 when Bregman drew only 44 walks compared to 86 strikeouts. He had walked more than he struck out in four of the last five non-pandemic seasons.

But if any team is willing to overlook the perceived faults of their homegrown star, it could be the Astros. They drafted Bregman second overall in the 2015 draft, and he’s remained a symbol of their painful, prolonged rebuilding process that yielded a number of early draft picks — most of which the Astros used wisely.

“Bregman is a special, special human and a special baseball player,” Astros pitcher Hunter Brown told reporters Wednesday in Houston. “I hope to get to see him back here next year. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

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