Carlos Correa could begin rehab assignment this week, potentially at second base

Carlos Correa could be back on a baseball field as soon as this week, and when he gets there, he may be standing somewhere he has never stood in 12 MLB seasons.

Per Mark Polishuk at MLB Trade Rumors, the Houston Astros are considering deploying Correa at second base upon his return from the ankle surgery that threatened to end his season back in May. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal was first to report that the Astros were weighing the keystone option, while MLB.com's Brian McTaggart reported that Correa took grounders at second base while training at the team's Spring Training facility.

What happened

A minor league rehab assignment could begin for Correa this week, per the MLB Trade Rumors report. Rather than returning to his customary spots at shortstop or third base, Correa is reportedly being considered for second base — a position he has never played across his entire major league career.

The positional experiment is not arbitrary. Per Rosenthal, as relayed by Polishuk, the working plan would have Correa at second base whenever Yordan Alvarez is playing left field, which would free the designated hitter slot for Jose Altuve. When Alvarez shifts back to DH, Correa would return to third base, Altuve would slide to second, and either Isaac Paredes or Christian Walker would handle first base. It is a lineup puzzle with several moving pieces, and Correa is reportedly being fitted as the piece that makes the rest of it work.

Why it matters

The belief within the organization, per the report, is that Correa — even while learning a new position and continuing to rehab an ankle — would be a better defensive option at second base than Altuve. That is a notable organizational posture, and it speaks to how much the Astros are counting on Correa's return to shore up a roster that has been navigating significant injury disruption.

The Astros sit at 75-74 (.503), first in the AL West with a division magic number of 11, but they have dropped their last two games. The rotation has faced its own challenges this season — a week removed from reports that starters Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier had both spent significant time on the IL — and the lineup has been similarly tested. Alvarez, who hit his career-high 38th home run just days ago and remains in Triple Crown contention per earlier reporting, has now missed Houston's last two games with a sore ankle of his own.

That Alvarez situation is the x-factor the report flags most directly. His ankle issue could affect the timeline and the logic of the entire positional deployment plan. Per Polishuk, Alvarez could return as early as Sunday, and the hope expressed in the report is that his ankle will be healed by the time Correa is fully ramped up and ready to contribute to Houston's AL West push.

Where the club stands

Houston enters Sunday at 75-74 (.503), leading the AL West on a two-game losing streak. The division magic number stands at 11. The Astros are scheduled to face the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Sunday, with Hayden Wesneski taking the ball against Freddy Peralta. They then return home to Daikin Park for a Tuesday matchup against the Kansas City Royals, with Hunter Brown listed as the probable starter, followed by Cristian Javier on Wednesday against Kansas City.

The rotation's recent health — Brown and Javier both returning from IL stints earlier this season — makes every scheduled start worth monitoring as Houston tries to protect its slim division lead. September roster rules allow clubs to carry 28 active players through the end of the regular season, which gives Houston some flexibility in how it manages Correa's ramp-up alongside the rest of its roster decisions. A rehab assignment for a position player can last up to 20 days before the club must activate him or make another move, so the clock, once it starts, will be a factor worth tracking.

What we don't know yet

### Is Correa's rehab assignment actually starting this week?

Per the MLB Trade Rumors report, it may begin this week — but that remains a possibility, not a certainty. No club announcement has been made, and the report preserves meaningful uncertainty around the timing.

The second base experiment carries its own open questions. Correa has never played the position at the major league level, and the report acknowledges the difficulty of learning a new position while simultaneously rehabbing an ankle. Whether the Astros ultimately commit to the plan, adjust it, or set it aside in favor of a more traditional deployment will depend on how the rehab goes and how Alvarez's ankle responds.

Alvarez's status is itself unresolved. He has missed Houston's last two games, and while the report indicates he could return as early as Sunday, no timetable has been formally announced. His availability — and which role he fills when he does return — is central to whether the reported second base framework gets put into practice at all.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is whether Correa's rehab assignment is formally announced in the coming days. If it is, the position he plays during that stint will offer the clearest signal of how serious the Astros are about the plan Rosenthal first reported.

Alvarez's return is equally worth watching. His ankle health determines the lineup architecture that makes the reported arrangement operationally relevant. If Alvarez is back in left field, the logic of the plan kicks in. If he is primarily at DH, Correa would slide back to third and the experiment may be less visible — at least initially.

Elsewhere in the AL West, the Texas Rangers activated both Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Jung from the injured list, per the same MLB Trade Rumors report, and both contributed to a 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks on Saturday. Jung went 2-for-5 as the starting third baseman, while Eovaldi pitched in relief for the first time since August 7, surrendering a single run across 2 2/3 innings in what the report describes as his new bullpen role. Jung had been sidelined since July 21 with a calf strain; Eovaldi had been dealing with right posterior elbow inflammation. The Rangers, at 73-76, sit two games behind Houston in the division and two games back of the last AL wild card spot — which means their own roster health matters directly to the Astros' margin.

The Rangers' good news came with an immediate asterisk: Joc Pederson left Saturday's game after being struck on the left hand by a Brandon Pfaadt pitch. Pederson stayed in to run the bases but was replaced by a pinch-hitter, per the report. His status is unclear.

For Houston, the next few days could clarify a great deal — Alvarez's availability, Correa's rehab timeline, and whether the most unusual positional experiment of the Astros' September actually makes it onto a real diamond. The desk will be watching.