(Reuters) – Houston Astros’ standout second baseman Jose Altuve had surgery on his broken right thumb on Wednesday and will not be able to resume baseball activities for about two months, the MLB team said.
Altuve, whose reigning World Series champion Astros team open their MLB season on March 30, suffered the injury when he was hit by a pitch while playing for Venezuela in a World Baseball Classic quarter-final game on Saturday.
The Astros said in a statement that Altuve had the surgery in Houston where he will remain while the team finishes their final week of spring training in Florida and might not be ready to return to the lineup until at least late May.
“Some guys heal faster than other guys, and he seems to be one of those guys,” Astros General Manager Dana Brown said in a report on MLB’s website. “After that, we’ll assess and hopefully he’s coming along well. It looks like it’s going to be about two months.”
Altuve, a former American League Most Valuable Player who won his second World Series title with the Astros last November, had a .300 batting average in 2022 along with 57 RBIs, 28 home runs and a team-high 158 hits.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
