With Carlos Lee all but established as the starter at first base, the Astros are giving Brett Wallace a better chance to make the team by giving him time at third base, his original position.

The Cardinals had drafted Wallace as a third baseman. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow ran that draft and said he is comfortable with Wallace at the hot corner.

He has been taking ground balls at third this offseason and will continue to get time in spring training. In fact, he was working out there Wednesday morning with first base coach Bobby Meacham, alternating reps with Chris Johnson, who started for much of 2011 before losing his spot to Jimmy Paredes, both of whom will be candidates for jobs this spring.

Wallace — though a lefthanded batter, also a righthanded thrower as is almost a necessity for the left side — said the Astros approached him about the move roughly a month ago.

“(They were) saying having options and being able to do multiple things to help the team makes you more valuable to us and for your career,” Wallace said. “They approached me about it to see how I felt and if I’d be willing to try it and I told them I’d be willing to do anything that really would help the team and be beneficial for me and the team.”

Wallace was unlikely to see much time at all at first base, barring injury. The emergence of J.D. Martinez last year made Luhnow and Brad Mills comfortable penciling him in there and Lee at first base, where he is a better defender than in left.

“I just want to be able to help the team any way I can,” Wallace said. “If that’s playing multiple positions, playing back and forth being able to back up multiple positions, I just want to keep my options open.”

Shifts toward the more difficult side of the defensive spectrum, as a move from first to third is considered, are very rare as teams usually look to exhaust any possibility of the more difficult spot before moving a player. The Cardinals kept Wallace at third base, as did the Athletics for the most part after Oakland acquired him in the Matt Holliday deal. Once Wallace was traded to the Blue Jays before the 2010 season, he became solely a first baseman for their Class AAA club.

Such a move back is not unheard of, though. The Detroit Tigers will attempt the same thing with Miguel Cabrera, whose body is even larger than that of Wallace, after acquiring Prince Fielder this offseason.

Really, much of Wallace’s future is dependent on his bat. He was in the lineup most days when he was playing well in April and May 2011 but slumped for long periods and was sent to the minors in August before returning to sparing playing time and a final .259 batting average, .344 on-base percentage and .369 slugging percentage.

“I think there will be healthy competition this spring between him and CJ and Paredes,” Luhnow said. “Right now Wallace’s most important milestone is to get back to the swing and offensive production that we know he’s capable of.”

Other notes from the Astros’ media day:

• Luhnow reiterated that the Astros were not actively seeking any upgrades to what is now a 61-man camp, though they always have eyes on the waiver wire.

“We’re probably the busiest front office in baseball because we get first licks (by virtue of the league-worst record) at anybody who got designated,” Luhnow said. “Every day, we’re having conversations of ‘is this guy better than the 40th man on our roster.’ … We’ve got our fingers in everything – I think you’re irresponsible if you don’t – but are we actively looking to move somebody or sign somebody at this point? No. We feel like we’ve got 61 guys coming to camp and feel good about the group and feel that from that group of 61, we’ve got a good 25-man roster to start the season.”

• Mills expects injured catcher Jason Castro to be ready for the second week of Grapefruit League games.