First baseman Jose Abreu took a step toward returning to the Houston Astros, when he was assigned to Triple-A Sugar Land on Friday.

After Abreu's disastrous start to the season, the Astros optioned the former American League MVP to the minor leagues on May 1, sending him to the spring training site in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Abreu, 37, is a career .284 hitter in 1,433 career games with the Chicago White Sox (2014-22) and Astros but began the 2024 season batting .099 (7-for-71) with 18 strikeouts in 22 games. He has just one extra-base hit, a double, after hitting 18 home runs and 23 doubles in 2023.

At the West Palm site, Abreu "had dozens of live batting practice at-bats," the team said in a news release. He also started five games for the Astros Florida Coast League team, going 7-for-22 (.318) with two doubles and one home run. He scored five times, walked once and struck out twice.

The Astros also got off to a slow start and were 10-19 when Abreu was optioned. At 22-28, they've climbed to six games under .500.