PHILADELPHIA – Amid a playoff push, Jose Altuve achieved a milestone.
Altuve recorded his 2,500th major-league hit in the Houston Astros‘ game against the Phillies on Wednesday, continuing his climb up the all-time list.
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With two outs in the third inning, Altuve hit a first-pitch sinker from left-hander Christopher Sánchez to center field, just out of the reach of Justin Crawford. Altuve cruised into second base with a double. The Astros stood along the railing of their dugout applauding Altuve, who pointed toward them.
Altuve, 36, is the 103rd player to reach 2,500 regular-season hits in Major League Baseball, according to Baseball Reference. He joined Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who attained the benchmark in June, as the only active players with 2,500 hits.
The second baseman and face of the Astros franchise, once turned away from a tryout in Venezuela as a teenager, reached the milestone at age 36 years and 125 days and in his 2,094th regular-season game. He and Craig Biggio are the only players to total 2,500 hits with the Astros.
Biggio recorded his 2,500th hit in his 2,281st regular-season game. On Sunday, Altuve tied Biggio for the franchise lead with his 225th career game of three or more hits.
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Altuve and Biggio are two of just 12 players in MLB history to amass at least 2,500 hits, 250 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Altuve, for now, is one of three of those players with a lifetime batting average of at least .300, along with Derek Jeter and Willie Mays.
The question ahead for Altuve: Can he reach 3,000 hits?
Altuve, who is signed through 2029, began this season at 2,388 hits. It left him needing to average 153 hits over the final four seasons of his contract to reach 3,000 before it ends.
Entering Tuesday, Altuve had 111 hits in 117 games played this season, with 18 games left on Houston‘s schedule. Altuve missed 2 ½ weeks to an oblique injury in the first half but entered Tuesday hitting .247, which would be his lowest batting average in a full-length season.
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Altuve totaled 185 hits in 2024, his most recent All-Star season, then recorded 156 hits last season while playing in 155 games.
Just 33 players have recorded 3,000 hits in MLB, the most recent Miguel Cabrera in 2022. Altuve shares a hometown of Maracay, Venezuela, with Cabrera and grew up idolizing the former slugger, who played his final season in 2023.
That season, Cabrera said he believed Altuve could someday join him in the 3,000-hit club, saying when asked why: “He’s Jose Altuve.”
From 2014-17, Altuve recorded at least 200 hits in four straight seasons and won two American League batting titles. He was limited to 137 and 124 games the next two seasons, and to 48 games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Injuries also limited him to 90 games in 2023, when he batted .311.
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Altuve’s average his ticked downward in each season since, to .295 in 2024, to .265 in 2025 and to .247 this season entering Tuesday. He did arrive in Philadelphia with a .297 average across his past 30 games, however, capable still of stringing hits together in bunches.
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This article originally published at Jose Altuve reaches 2,500 hits with Houston Astros. Is 3,000 his next milestone?.
