Help is on the way! Composite Getty Image.
With the season’s first third in the books and the Astros showing signs of life, despite significant injuries, the front office faces a familiar question: what exactly should be prioritized at the trade deadline?
Much of that depends on the status of Yordan Alvarez. His return looms as a pivotal moment—especially in determining whether the Astros truly need to seek out another left-handed bat. But if Alvarez is back and productive, who exactly would that bat be replacing? The only spot where it would currently make sense is second base—unlikely unless Jose Altuve returns to his former position more regularly. Otherwise, it would take a collapse from Jake Meyers to make an outfield move viable.
So, the bigger need might lie on the mound.
With three-fifths of the original rotation on the shelf, is it realistic to expect McCullers to offset the losses? If he remains healthy, history suggests he could. A career ERA of 3.54 is solid enough, and that’s roughly what should be expected—if he can avoid setbacks. But "if" does a lot of work in that sentence.
More likely, the key to surviving Blanco and Hayden Wesneski's absence is Spencer Arrighetti. His return could make or break the back end of the rotation. At a minimum, Houston needs four semi-reliable arms to push into the summer months with some level of confidence. There’s hope Arrighetti could be back in July—though GM Dana Brown’s comments on the team’s flagship station didn’t inspire much clarity. Then again, he has already begun throwing, quietly getting back to work. And don't forget about Luis Garcia. Brown said the club expects him back in late July or early August, though his repeated setbacks should give the team cause for pause.
Meanwhile, the schedule sets up favorably. With upcoming series against the Rays, Pirates, Guardians, and White Sox, the Astros are in a soft spot. Add in the fact that they’ve taken seven of their last ten against AL West opponents, and it’s not a stretch to imagine Houston sitting atop the division by the time Yordan returns—especially if the offense continues its upward trajectory.
Over the last 30 days, the numbers speak to that resurgence:
- 10th in MLB in runs
- 5th in OPS
- 6th in slugging
And even some struggling members of the offense have shown improvement in May. Yainer Díaz, who began May hitting .208, is now up to .229 with a .735 OPS over the last month. Christian Walker has trended up slightly too, with a .218 average and .620 OPS over that same stretch after opening May below the Mendoza Line.
There’s progress. There’s uncertainty. And there’s just enough runway to believe the Astros could be in control of their fate again—if the right moves are made, and if just a couple of the maybes become sure things.
There's so much more to get to! Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
The MLB season is finally upon us! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday!
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It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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