The Jose Altuve contract inspires Cybermetrics to look at the history of second basemen hitting home runs and stealing bases. Joe Morgan unsurprisingly served as the trailblazer.
The Day by Day Database holds 50 years of situational hitting data, including by defensive position. You can see how the home run profile of second baseman changed over that period:
| Decade | Second Basemen HR Percentage (per PA) |
| 1974-1983 | 1.00% |
| 1984-1993 | 1.25% |
| 1994-2003 | 1.72% |
| 2004-2013 | 2.03% |
| 2014-2023 | 2.47% |
While part of that is just that batters hit more home runs overall, the other three positions don’t show the steady rise. First base, third base, and shortstop all saw the percentage drop in the 2004-2013 stretch as PED testing came into existence. (Note, however, that in the last decade, shortstops now exceed second baseman in HR percentage at 2.52%.)