After last month’s Kyle Tucker trade, the outfield is the biggest question for the Astros. Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick are lined up to start in center and right field, respectively. Meyers is a defensive stalwart without much offensive upside. McCormick has been a very good hitter in the past, but he’s coming off the worst season of his career.
Left field is completely open. While Yordan Alvarez could get a few starts there, the Astros want to use him mostly as a designated hitter. Former top prospect Taylor Trammell, who started one major league game last season, is Houston’s projected left fielder at RosterResource. Trammell is coming off a strong season in Triple-A, but he’s 27 years old and has a .167/.270/.368 batting line over 359 MLB plate appearances. If not Trammell, utility player Mauricio Dubón would probably get the majority of the playing time. Houston still expects to compete for an AL West title. They’ll need to add at least one outfielder before Opening Day.
General manager Dana Brown has acknowledged as much. Houston is looking for a left-handed hitter, in particular, potentially allowing them to spell McCormick or Meyers. The Astros project narrowly above the competitive balance tax threshold and don’t seem likely to make a play for Anthony Santander. If they’re dealing with a tighter budget, where could they look?
Free Agency
Jurickson Profar: Profar might be out of their financial comfort zone as well. As of last month, the switch-hitting left fielder was looking for a deal of at least three years. He’s the best non-Santander outfielder available in free agency. Profar has had an up-and-down career but is coming off by far his best season. He hit .280/.380/.459 with 24 homers behind massively improved exit velocities. He’ll turn 32 in February, but the Astros have made three-year free agent commitments to much older hitters (i.e. José Abreu and Christian Walker). Profar is an ideal fit on paper, but the money could be an issue.
Alex Verdugo: For most of his Red Sox tenure, Verdugo was a capable if mercurial everyday player. He hit .281/.338/.424 across four seasons in Boston. The Sox traded him to the Yankees, who stuck with him as their regular left fielder amidst the worst season of his career. Verdugo finished the year with a .233/.291/.356 slash across 621 plate appearances. Almost all the positives came in the first month of the season. Verdugo carried a .267/.358/.446 line into May. He hit .225/.275/.336 over his final 501 plate appearances. Verdugo doesn’t turn 29 until May, so he’s a plausible rebound candidate, but that’d be less risky for a fringe contender than it is for a true win-now team like Houston. He’s likely looking at a one-year pillow deal, probably for less than the $10MM that Max Kepler received from Philadelphia.
Jesse Winker: Outside of Profar, Winker probably has the best offensive profile of this group. He hit .258/.366/.422 with 13 homers in 404 plate appearances against righty pitching last season. He’s a career .276/.379/.462 hitter with the platoon advantage. Winker isn’t a huge threat against lefties, but he can hit right-handers. The big drawback is the defensive profile. He’s a poor defender in left field who should primarily be a designated hitter. The Astros would either need to have him divide left field work with Alvarez or play Winker there regularly if they want to keep their superstar DH off his feet. Maybe they feel the Crawford Boxes and limited left field to cover in Houston makes that worthwhile. Winker might be able to get two years but shouldn’t be all that expensive.
Jason Heyward: Heyward finished the 2024 season in Houston after being released by the Dodgers. He hit four homers in 24 regular season contests and started one of their Division Series games against the Tigers. While it was a fairly strong finish, Heyward had hit .208/.289/.393 across 197 plate appearances with Los Angeles. He’s at best a strong-side platoon option and might be a better fit for a bench role going into his age-35 season. He’d be available for one year and a base salary of a few million dollars.
David Peralta: Peralta has a similar profile to Heyward. He’s a former above-average regular who has settled into a platoon role in his late 30s. He’s coming off a nice season for the Padres, hitting .267/.335/.415 across 260 plate appearances. The Astros would probably prefer to bring Heyward back if they’re going this route, but Peralta had better numbers in 2024.
Trade Candidates
Jesús Sánchez: Outside of Sandy Alcántara and the dead money owed to released outfielder Avisaíl García, Sánchez projects as the highest-paid player on the Marlins. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for a $3.2MM salary in his second of four trips through arbitration. That’s hardly exorbitant, but Miami has shown a willingness to move virtually anyone amidst their full rebuild. Sánchez is a former top prospect who has settled in as a low-end regular in the big leagues. He’s coming off a .252/.313/.417 showing with 18 homers and 16 stolen bases — his second straight league average offensive performance. He’s a roughly average defender in either corner. The 27-year-old may not have the upside that many prospect evaluators had hoped, but he’d be an upgrade over Trammell.
Mike Yastrzemski: The Giants seemed likely to deal one of their arbitration-eligible players at the start of the offseason. Yastrzemski, who agreed to a $9.25MM salary in his final year of club control, seemed the most logical candidate. San Francisco has been quiet since pulling off the Willy Adames deal, however, so they might not be looking to shed payroll to open additional free agent pursuits. Yastrzmeski is coming off a .231/.302/.437 showing with 18 homers through 474 trips to the plate.
Willi Castro: Castro is a switch-hitting utility player who has more than 800 innings of left field experience. He has had a solid two-year run in Minnesota, hitting .251/.334/.395 in 1044 plate appearances. Castro was a nice find for the Twins’ front office, who inked him to a minor league deal after he’d been non-tendered by the Tigers. He’s in his final winter of arbitration and projected for a $6.2MM salary. Minnesota highly values his versatility and clubhouse presence, so they’re probably not keen on moving him. Yet the Twins are working with an extremely tight budget and have done nothing in free agency. Trading Castro would be one way to open a bit of payroll space.
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There are a few other trade candidates if Houston wanted to take a bigger swing. Players like Wilyer Abreu, Jake McCarthy and Alec Burleson could be available. They’d require a stronger prospect return than any of Sánchez, Yastrzmeski or Castro, however. That seems unlikely considering the Astros dealt Tucker because they wanted to add talent to a very thin farm system without giving up on the upcoming season.
Alex Verdugo
Seems like the logical choice but $10m? Maybe less with incentives?
Benintendi finished strong last season as a mainly cash considerations trade scenario, and Hou has had previous interest. 3yrs/49.3 left on deal.
Taking on 30mil (10aav) for age 30-32yo seasons and parting with token long shot prospect would do it. Low 8 figures doesn’t go far these days.
I don’t think anyone signs Verdugo. He’s proven to be a liability in LF and without the green monster turning flyball outs into a flurry of base hits he’s what..? a .230 hitter? If Bennintendi is available and can get his bat back up to the .260/.270 mark he’d be worth the risk because his fielding is decent. But he also left the Sox and couldn’t hit anymore.
Winker?
Verdugo’s a bum. No.
Dana Brown believes the answer – or at least one answer – is Jacob Melton.
I don’t know the one they traded was pretty darn good. Just saying
They knew they couldn’t resign him and got a nice return.
I don’t get why people don’t seem to get that. Getting a quality, proven MLB 3rd baseman and a high ceiling top prospect for a rental is a great deal.
Absolutely.
Keeping homegrown stars is even better. No reason they couldn’t resign him and I suppose they still could but the Astros should be in win-now mode with Yordan and Altuve I think. If I were an Astros fan I’d rather keep him and compete, the AL is wide open.
The AL is so wide open they can trade Tucker and compete at the same time
There is a reason they couldn’t re-sign him. He’s going for the bag and that’s not how they do business. If he gets HALF of what Soto got, it would be twice the largest contract the Astros have ever offered and more years. And Tucker is worth more than half of Soto.
If not being able to re-sign him was such a problem they wouldn’t have gotten any return at all.
That’s not a reason to trade for him. It’s a reason against trading for him. The Cubs could sign him in a year without trading for him first. Then they would have Tucker AND Paredes, Wesneski and Smith.
@Stone Cold If the Cubs are gonna have such an easy time signing Tucker why did they give up Smith, Paredes and Wesneski for him? If you are 100% certain you can sign a guy you wait out his free agency and keep your prospects/good controllable young players.
Carlos Beltran.
JJ Bleday
Maybe contact the cubs about tucker?
Mullins for Pressly?
Abreu is a solid enough player and with five years of team control remaining. Could be a good fit, more certain than a minor leaguer and with more control than most established players.
I think the Rockies should think about swapping Nolan Jones. He had a sophomore slump year, but a lot of that could be attributed to an injury. Colorado has a LOT of outfielders on the way up and need to thin the herd. I don’t think it would require any type of major prospect, maybe just one of the Astros starting pitchers like Arrighetti.
They shouldnt trade arriggetti and jones hasnt peeformed at the majors at a level to warrant a big prospect.
Jones is a decent idea, but we’d probably have to stick an asterisk next to any Rockies player with a note that the front office doesn’t act nearly predictably enough to make trade projections worth the time
McCarthy is a beast…
Somehow McCarthy and Monty for one decent prospect?
The Astros only have one real prospect now.
Sterling marte for pressly
McNeil for Pressly?
Do you think Pressly would waive his 10/5 rights for NYM?
Dylan Carlson.
Yes on Jesus Sanchez and Winker. I would call Arizona about Alek Thomas too.
I like a trade for j sanchez. Has some upside and i think would be more successful outside of the marlins organization. Also like take taking a flyer on carlson, just dont know if he has the desired platoon split or not. While finding a lefty hitter is preferred, the outfield is weak enough that they shouldnt be closed off to righty bats either.
Call up the Bellevue boy Brantley and see if he wants to come out of retirement
Wilyer Abreu for Bryan Abreu.
Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s someone who can hear the trash can bangs.
What a cool comment. Thanks for the contribution.
Someone needs to replace Bregman’s production, bruh has a real talent drumming a can!
@screamer2244
I’m glad you enjoyed it. You can join my fan club along with Lindor’s Bodyguard.
Happy to join. The rent free tears are delicious.
Muted. Guilty of being repetitive and childish. Good riddance. One less idiot.
@Lindor’s Bodyguard
You won’t be missed.
I think they’ll bring back Heyward and see what Melton or another prospect can do
This is the most likely scenario imo. Dezenzo has reverse splits, .814 OPS against RH pitching w/ Houston and .893 at AAA. Melton will probably be called up at some point.
I’d like to see the Astros sign Verdugo to something in the vicinity of 6 years/$156M. Seems reasonable. Just give Verdugo the money they were willing to commit to Bregman.
It’s a really really good deal.
The fact that it’s an absolutely insane overpay on dollars and years and would create financial flexibility issues for the Astros, whom I have no respect for, but Verdugo, whom I like as a player, would get *PAID*, has absolutely no bearing on this deal proposal.
I don’t think its going to be a trade. Astros are short on prospects other than Cam Smith. Profar or Verdugo are much likelier suspects.
Adolis Garcia for Pressly, but hold it Adolis owns the Astros .
James Outman for Roki pool money
Great idea!
They should trade for Kyle Tucker. He would fit perfectly.
I got here too late lol, I came to say the same thing
Is he available? Asking for a friend
Melton has not shown he’s ready. I doubt that they will trade any of their top prospects for any of those players mentioned in the article.
Profar might be a fit but finding a trade partner to offload Pressly’s $14mil is the likely hold up. Of course they could try to tread water and see where they are at the trade deadline.
A Kyle Tucker’s a Kyle Tucker. But the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a Kyle Tucker. You know how much we’ve wanted one of those!
Or a boat!
Problem for the Astros is that none of those guys is worth the CBT draft and international signing pool penalties. Only Heyward might fit without unloading Pressley or Valdez. And really they need both a full time corner guy AND a strong side platoon guy. I’d be focused on trading Valdez for a high-end, MLB ready or established OF prospect, then using the savings to add one of the guys listed here plus re-signing Justin Verlander on a one year incentive based deal.
I would probably go with Peralta over Verdugo.
Maybe do a bad contract swap with the White Sox, say Pressly and cash in ’26-27 for Benintendi
Guessing Dumpster diving is not in the Astros DNA
Jon Singleton.
The Cardinals have other LH controllable OF beyond Burleson that wouldn’t cost the Astros a lot of talent. Siani & Scott II are the same player – light hitting platoon OF with elite speed and defense, Cards don’t need both of them.
Siani for Luis Baez maybe, gives Houston a 4OF/5OF and gives Cards another RH OF in the system?
Burleson should be put on 1B and left alone.
Profar wants three years but will be lucky to get two years. Last year was an outlier and he will not repeat that again…my guess is that he will end up with a 2 yr and 16-18 million total. Once the music stops and there are very few chairs left he will sign that and anything more is an overpay unless he is willing to defer some cash that pays him after his playing days are over.
Demand is greater than supply. Reds/Angels/Blue Jays and Astros are minimum 4 teams looking for OF help when there’s not much quality outside of resorting to trades. Profar is inconsistent, but he will benefit like other FAs doing quite well this offseason.
Call Boston they have a ton of lefthanded bats im sure there’s a trade that could work and Duran and Abreu value will probably never be as high as it is now they can’t keep them all with 2 top prospects on the way this yr or next
Houston should be in a win it all mode because the future looks bleak.
I mean players are not resigning with the team and the farm system will take three or more years to rebuild. Also, the owner generally is cheap and will only spend when they think there is a good chance to compete.
Houston is not like the Yankees where they try to win every year. I remember one season that you could get into the stadium with an empty can of Minute Maid to exchange for a ticket. That’s how bad it was.
Those days are going to come back. They made bad decisions on extending players and overpaying for players and with the owner Crane he will just buy time until the money falls off. Bad times are coming for this franchise.
Assume the contract and the Red Sox might give them Yoshida for a AA infielder.
Jurickson is the best of the bunch.
You can roll Meyers and McCormick together and still won’t get Profar. That’s how weak and pathetic our outfield is right now. JP is the answer.
Josh Red Dick?
Hit up the O’s for Cedric Mullins, Cade Povich, Jud Fabian, Max Wagner for Valdez & Pressly. Fair value trade?
All of Montgomery contract, Alek Thomas, Tommy Troy, and another prospect for Framber?