Altuve hadn’t even permitted himself to assume what had become a lock a month earlier: that after a regular season in which he had batted .346, with 24 home runs, 81 RBIs, and 32 steals, he would win the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award over a rival, the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who stood 14 inches taller than Altuve and outweighed him by 117 pounds.
