HOUSTON -- Before José Altuve arrived on the scene at Minute Maid Park in 2011, the best player to wear No. 27 in Astros history was either Bob Watson or Glenn Davis, depending on your age and who you watched growing up. (Sorry, Geoff Blum).

In what has been the golden age of Astros baseball, highlighted by a World Series championship in 2017 and another trip to the Fall Classic two years later, Altuve’s accomplishments -- including the '17 American League Most Valuable Player Award -- have put him near the top of the list of the team’s all-time greatest players.

• Astros all-time retired numbers

A three-time batting champ and six-time All-Star, Altuve’s accomplishments in Houston resonate loudest on a team that currently includes former Cy Young Award winners Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, 2019 AL MVP Award runner-up Alex Bregman, '17 World Series MVP George Springer and former No. 1 overall pick Carlos Correa, who’s one of the game’s best shortstops when he’s healthy.

Altuve is on a Hall of Fame arc because of what he has been able to accomplish on the field in his nine years with the Astros. If he winds up getting enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown when his career is over, he’s likely to get his No. 27 jersey retired by the Astros at some point.

Altuve has five years remaining on his contract, so he will play the majority of his career in Houston and should continue moving up in the Astros' record books. He’ll go down as one of the club’s greatest icons. Entering 2020, Altuve’s .315 career average is second highest in club history (Moises Alou hit .331) and he ranks seventh all-time in runs scored (734), sixth in hits (1,568), total bases (2,307) and doubles (299) and fourth in stolen bases (254). And he did it all before his 30th birthday.

Enshrinement into the Hall of Fame would all but ensure Altuve would be the next Astros player to get his number retired. That is, of course, if the 37-year-old Verlander doesn’t get into Cooperstown first. Even if Verlander has a Tigers logo on his plaque, his accomplishments while with the Astros could warrant number-retirement consideration. (Hey, the NBA’s Rockets retired Clyde Drexler’s No. 22 after he helped them to the 1995 NBA title in his 3 1/2 seasons in Houston).

Since being traded to the Astros from the Tigers on Aug. 31, 2017, Verlander has won the ’17 AL Championship Series MVP Award and ’19 AL Cy Young Award, thrown his third no-hitter, reached 300 strikeouts in a season for the first time (in ’19) and reached 225 career wins and 3,000 strikeouts. Verlander still has two more seasons on his Astros contract and wants to play until he’s 45. He’s far from done.

The Astros have been liberal in retiring numbers in the past, but that changed last year when the club unveiled its inaugural Astros Hall of Fame class, which was made up of players who have had their numbers retired and those honored in the Walk of Fame along Texas Ave. The club plans on the Astros Hall of Fame to be the highest honor a player can receive, saving retired-number honors for those who are elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Nine former Astros have had their numbers retired, led by Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell (No. 5), Craig Biggio (7) and Nolan Ryan (34). Houston hasn’t retired a number since Biggio in 2008. Other retired numbers are Jimmy Wynn (24), Jose Cruz (25), Mike Scott (33), Larry Dierker (49), Don Wilson (40) and Jim Umbricht (32). The numbers of Wilson and Umbricht were retired following their untimely deaths while they were still active players.

Of note: No Astros player has worn the No. 57 of late pitcher Darryl Kile, though the number hasn’t officially been retired.

"When you look at the way we've honored our players in the past through multiple ownership groups and leadership, it's kind of been all over the board,” former Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan said last year.

The club’s new stringent number-retirement rules are bad news for those who have clamored for the Astros to retire the numbers of some of the team’s other great players of the past, including J.R. Richard (No. 50), Cesar Cedeno (28), Lance Berkman (17), Roy Oswalt (44) or Joe Niekro (36). Unless any of those players wind up in the Baseball Hall of Fame -- and none of them have come close -- they will have to settle for Astros Hall of Fame recognition.

And who knows, perhaps Correa (No. 1), Bregman (2) or Springer (4) could wind up seeing their jerseys hanging in the rafters of Minute Maid Park one day. But it's not likely before Altuve gets his day in the sun.