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.

At the team's Fanfest, Jose Altuve talked about his willingness to play the outfield if it will help the Astros re-sign Alex Bregman in free agency.