Jorge L. Ortiz

USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND –Jose Altuve speaks English well, yet he can’t seem to grasp the meaning of the expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’’

Coming off a season when he finished in the top 10 in the American League MVP voting for the first time while setting career highs with 15 home runs and 66 RBI, the Houston Astros second baseman is tinkering again, just like he did the previous year and the one before that.

Clearly, a batting title and three All-Star Game invites in his first four full seasons were not enough to satisfy him.

This year Altuve is accomplishing more with less, cutting down on the number of pitches he offers at to 46.5% after topping the 50% mark each of the last two seasons, and also reducing the times he swings at pitches outside the strike zone from his career norm of 34.7% to 29.8%.

Jose Altuve sings along to the Backstreet Boys in delightful video

In other words, Altuve has become more selective at the plate despite no discernible reason to do so, considering his .311 career batting average ranks third among active players.

Why?

“Every year since 2012, which was my first full season, I’ve changed something,’’ Altuve told USA TODAY Sports in Spanish. “The most drastic change came from 2013 to ’14. I hit with an early step and switched to a leg kick. People were telling me, ‘You’re doing fine the way you hit now.’ But that year I hit with a leg kick and I won the batting crown.

“That year is when I realized you should be pleased with what you’re doing, but not be satisfied. There’s always something to improve. From 2014 to ’15, I made another big change, from just trying to put the ball in play to taking a bigger swing, and I went from (seven) home runs to 15. This year I’m trying to drive the ball regardless of how many strikes I have in the count.’’

And it’s working. Altuve already has 15 homers to go along with 54 RBI – the latter figure boosted by his move from leadoff to second and now third in the lineup – and his .990 on-base plus slugging percentage ranks fourth in the American League.

With the Astros logging the best record in the majors since May 23 (34-16) and contending for a playoff spot, he has landed squarely in the middle of the early MVP discussion.

Counterintuitively, Altuve’s increased pop has come with more bases on balls, as the former free swinger is walking nearly twice as much as his usual norm, which has shot up from 5.6% to 10.1% of his plate appearances.

Altuve, 26, doesn’t like sharing his hitting secrets, and he’s quick to point out nine of his 44 walks – already a career high by four – have been of the intentional variety. But he acknowledges making a conscious effort to alter his approach.

“I’m no longer afraid of being called out on strikes,’’ he said. “If it’s not the pitch I want, I’ll let it go. It was a matter of changing my mentality, not my swing. I happen to think your swing will always be there. The thing is timing. Sometimes it’s going to be a little late, sometimes a little early. And your way of thinking is what makes the entire game.’’

Whereas Altuve used to punch at close pitches with two strikes on to stay alive at the plate, he’s now looking to do damage all the time. And he’s still among the game’s toughest hitters to strike out – in fact, leading the majors by fanning in just 9.4% of his trips to the plate – a testament to his remarkable hand-eye coordination.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch is so impressed with Altuve’s ability to crank out hits, he’s convinced the Venezuela native can direct the ball at will to find holes where defenders aren’t stationed. Altuve insists he doesn’t perform that kind of magic, even if sometimes it seems he wields a wand instead of a bat as his tool of choice.

In the six games since making his fourth All-Star Game appearance, Altuve has gone 14-for-24 to raise his major league-leading batting average to .357, twice collecting four hits. His six four-hit games are tops in the big leagues.

“He finds a way to get hits,’’ Hinch said. “It’s a skill not many guys have where he knows where the defenders are, he somehow feels like he can direct the ball to the holes, he has speed to get infield hits, he’s got power to drive the ball out of the ballpark. He has so many different ways to accumulate hits. It’s almost laughable to talk about how he hasn’t had a five-hit game.’’

Altuve maintains he’s no Ty Cobb or Tony Gwynn, although he may be on his way to joining them as winners of multiple batting titles and is on pace for a third consecutive 200-hit season. Altuve also leads the AL with 25 steals and has improved his fielding – the area of his game deemed the weakest by the scout who signed him – to the point he won a Gold Glove last season and has committed just three errors this year.

His continued evolution as a player has rendered moot what was initially the central theme of stories about him, his 5-6 height.

“He’s really the centerpiece of our lineup,’’ Hinch said. “He’s truly a superstar in this game that more people are getting to know the more we play well.’’