3 critical things on the Astros second half wish list. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.
The Astros head into the All-Star break with a 3.5 game lead in the AL West and in a tie for the AL's 2nd best record with the Red Sox. They also have MLB's best run differential at +136. To say this season has been a success so far would be an understatement. Not many saw this team being this good. I certainly wasn't expecting it. Anyone who said they saw this coming is most likely lying. In order to carry this momentum moving forward, there are a few things the team could use going into the proverbial second half of the season.
1) Health: A healthy roster would be ideal. Yes, I know this can be said for any team in the playoff race, but it's especially true for this team. As of this writing, too many key guys are dealing with some kind of ailment. Alex Bregman and Carlos Correa are currently out. Michael Brantley, Yordan Alvarez, and several others have missed time this season. Pitching staff ace Justin Verlander has been out all season after Tommy John surgery. If the team can stay healthy, look for them to make another run.
2) Bullpen arm: One area that has caused the team much grief this season is the bullpen. Closer Ryan Pressly was selected to the All-Star team. Outside of that, the bullpen has been shaky at best. Recently, general manager James Click made a statement about the team's activity going into the trade deadline. In his statement, Click said the team is willing to go above and way beyond the luxury tax threshold. That revelation goes against what most thought. Owner Jim Crane was thought to have given an order not to go over the threshold. Apparently, Mr. Crane has done an about-face, and it's come at the right time. Cubs bullpen ace Craig Kimbrel is on the market. Rumor has it that the Astros are one of the teams he's expected to land with. This would be ideal, considering the A's are another team rumored to be after Kimbrel. Plugging that hole would stop some bleeding and help this team immensely moving forward.
A wish list twist?
3) Outfielder: Brantley has been the most consistent outfielder. Kyle Tucker has proven himself to be worthy with his power numbers and improved batting average. Myles Straw and Chas McCormick are getting better with more playing time. However, in order for this team to make a good run, they could use another solid veteran outfielder. While Brantley and Tucker are pretty entrenched as the left and right fielders respectively, center field has been a revolving door. Straw brings speed, while McCormick has some impressive power numbers considering the amount of at-bats he's had. I listed this one last on purpose because it could be the smallest need of the three if Straw and McCormick continue to improve.
While news that the team is ready to be buyers at the trade deadline and not being afraid of the tax threshold is a welcomed idea, I'm waiting to see what they'll realistically be able to do. There are areas in which they need to be looking, but hoping for the guys currently on the roster to stay healthy is the most important. Considering the trades they've made in recent years and the sanctions from the sign-stealing scandal have dwindled the minor league system, it'll be interesting to see what they'll give up in a trade. When your window to win another title is still open, you go all out. It's time for Click and Crane to push all their chips to the middle of the table and call everyone else's bluff.
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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