José Abreu, now healthy, has chance for playoff clean slate after ugly Houston debut

HOUSTON — His stint on the injured list neared its end, allowing José Abreu to resume a season-long search for himself. September loomed and with it the sort of stakes he signed here to experience. Abreu left the Chicago White Sox, the only franchise he ever knew, for one with a championship banner currently raised. He was a crown jewel of the Astros’ chaotic winter.

Abreu signed one of the most lucrative free-agent contracts in franchise history. He started it with the worst season of his career. Abreu’s power faded, his production plummeted and his lower back ached. Tracing the origin of the pain is difficult, but Abreu has always refused to use it as an excuse.

“I was talking to him during the season and I think he was bothered most of the season. But he just came here (on) a new contract, to a new team, a lot of expectations and he wanted to play through all that pain that he was feeling in his lower back, his legs — everything was kind of connected,” Astros hitting coach Alex Cintrón said.

“After he took the (time) off and took care of what he needed to take care of, he was a different animal.”

Abreu struck eight home runs and slugged .530 in 130 plate appearances since the injured list stint he tried to stave off.

“I think toward the end of the season, I felt better, healthier,” Abreu said Friday through an interpreter.

A turnaround is apparent, even if Abreu’s season-long numbers do not show it. His .680 OPS, 87 OPS+, .383 slugging percentage and .237 batting average are all career lows. Yet a clean slate awaits in his first Astros postseason.

“Everyone will forget what you did,” Cintrón said he told him. “Everyone will remember what you did in September and October.’”

Cintrón has turned into one of Abreu’s closest confidants. A three-day visit in Miami this winter allowed Cintrón to better understand Abreu’s offensive tendencies and overall tenaciousness. The pair then spent all year trying to stop Abreu’s spiraling season.

“He doesn’t want off days. His off days, he loves to DH. He doesn’t want to sit. He wants to play,” Cintrón said.

“If he struggles, he wants to go out the next day and show who he is. He doesn’t say much. But I reminded him, said, ‘Hey, you’re one of the best right-handed hitters in the game.’ You look at his numbers in the past nine seasons, he’s one of the best right-handed hitters in the game.”

Among them, only Jose Altuve has more hits since 2014. Only Nolan Arenado has more RBIs in that same span. One poor season can take away that perspective. When Abreu went on the injured list Aug. 12, he sported a .234/.291/.343 slash line.

Eleven days later, as the Astros prepared to activate him, Abreu received a text message. Cintrón cropped all of Abreu’s other career statistics into one screenshot and sent it to a slugger struggling to find himself.

“This is you,” Cintrón’s message accompanying it read. “Remind yourself who you are.”

A day before his public introduction, Abreu attended a dinner alongside Astros owner Jim Crane. At one point, Abreu pulled out his phone. Crane left impressed with how many of his new teammates’ phone numbers Abreu already had.

“He just came in seamlessly,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said. “It was easy. He came in and was part of the group from the jump. I think he embodies everything this team is about: hard work, being a good teammate, playing hard. He brings a lot of, not just his great play, but he brings a great vibe to the clubhouse.”

Peña was one of the few players Abreu did not previously know. Abreu’s offseason home is in Miami, allowing him easy access to the Astros’ spring training facility in West Palm Beach, so the two infielders made plans to work out together.

Abreu arrived with a small infielder’s glove and asked to field ground balls alongside Peña at shortstop, a preference he still has when the team takes infield.

“I’d make fun of him, say, ‘Hey, you’ve got nice hands,’” Peña said. “He was like, ‘I was a shortstop back in my day.’ So I’m like, ‘All right, bet, I’m just going to throw it over there and you have to pick me up.’”

Culture is a hallmark of Houston’s success. Entering it as an outsider can be challenging, but only if standards are not understood. Outside expectations are enormous each season, but the expectations inside the room are straightforward. Pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. once described it plainly: “We’re going to laugh, be happy, smile and we’re going to show up every day ready to play.”

Doing so amid a disastrous season could be difficult. Abreu made it seem anything but.

“It still feels like he’s a kid playing this game and that’s the exciting part. Watching him play over a couple years in a couple different organizations, even when he’s struggling, he has a way to bring a smile and laughter to a lot of people’s faces, even when he’s not performing how he’d like to,” said reliever Kendall Graveman, who played with Abreu in Chicago in 2022.

“One of the biggest signs is when you can be around a certain person, their character always shows no matter if they’re having good days or bad days or good performances or bad performances.”

Abreu’s quick wit and humor remained constant, teammates say. Support through his struggles came from all corners of the clubhouse. Manager Dusty Baker batted Abreu fourth, fifth or sixth in the batting order during 139 of his 141 starts and ignored calls for rookie Yainer Diaz as Abreu’s slump deepened, even when logic suggested a lineup shakeup or at least a reduced role.

“(I have) just an immense amount of respect for them,” Abreu said through an interpreter.

Other teams are not equipped to overcome such miserable production from a middle-of-the-order bat. Abreu’s previous team, the 61-101 White Sox, being a prime example. Here, no such problem exists. Diaz and Chas McCormick each posted an OPS over .840. Mauricio Dubón delivered the best season of his career. Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez continued their twin ascents to superstardom while awaiting Abreu’s emergence.

“One thing that I told him when we signed him was, ‘You have guys you can lean on. You don’t have to be the hero. We’ve got plenty of guys that will step up in different ways,’” said bench coach Joe Espada. “I know you want to have an impact on our season, just stay calm and stay positive and lean on these guys. These guys are champions and they just know how to pick people up.”

At one point this season, Abreu confided in catcher Martín Maldonado. The message he shared surprised Houston’s starting catcher, a man who has experienced or seen most of what the sport has to offer.

“I know the season is not going the way I want it to go, but the only thing we can control is the work we put in,’” Maldonado recalled him saying.

Few everyday players took more early batting practice than Abreu, most of the time with Cintrón standing nearby. After too many games to count — win or lose and whether Abreu finished 0-for-4 or 4-for-4 — the 36-year-old first baseman summoned Cintrón into the batting cages for extra swings.

“This is a guy that has $50 million, $60 million in the bank and comes here and shows up like he’s a rookie,” Dubón said. “This is a guy who has an MVP. As a guy coming up and trying to build a career, it’s pretty admirable watching him. He works. He has an MVP, has all the money. Why would I not work when he does that every day?”

Abreu’s work ethic is almost mythical inside the Astros’ clubhouse.

“I know it sounds cliche and you could probably say this about a lot of people, but I’ve told multiple people even when he signed over here that he is, personally, the hardest-working teammate I’ve ever played with,” Graveman said.

Entering this season, only Carlos Santana had appeared in more games than Abreu since 2014. In a sport where durability can sometimes be devalued, Abreu’s is welcomed. Baker is the perfect manager to appreciate it.

That it continued despite persistent back pain prompts some deeper questions that only Abreu can answer. In August, he acknowledged the discomfort popped up at different points of the season. On Friday, through an interpreter, Abreu said, “I’m not going to make justifications about that. What happened happened, but I’m going to try to keep the positives and look forward.”

Without much use of his lower half, Abreu’s swing became too rotational and reliant on his hands. He could not catch up to fastballs and displayed no discernible pop. He recorded 10 home runs, slugged .343 and averaged an 88.4 mph exit velocity during the season’s first 464 plate appearances.

“He had no twitch in his swing,” Cintrón said. “His swings weren’t powerful at all because he couldn’t use his whole body. Without your lower half, you’re not going to have the same power or twitch to the ball. It’s not explosive. When you use your upper body, the swings are slower. You can even see it compared to now.”

Abreu put 75 balls in play in September and averaged a 90.7 mph exit velocity. Fourteen of his 23 hits fell for extra bases, including two clutch doubles to dead center field during the team’s season-ending sweep in Arizona. Both fly balls narrowly missed leaving the ballpark. If both cleared the fence, Abreu would have had a 20-homer season. He still finished with 90 RBIs, 28 of which arrived in September.

“This guy can still hit 30 homers,” Cintrón said. “He hit 18 with (his) worst year. He can hit 30 homers with 100 RBIs.”

The Astros would welcome the production, even if it isn’t necessarily needed. A team this deep does not need one person to carry it, which Abreu saw firsthand this season. Teammates picked him up and propelled the Astros to an improbable American League West title.

Now, perhaps, Abreu is in line to return the favor.

(Top photo of José Abreu: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)