Since rejoining the Astros this week, Jose Abreu has gone 1-6 at the plate, boosting his batting average from an abysmal .099 to a horrid .105 while making a mess of playing first base. This was after going 0-7 at Triple A Sugar Land last week.

And the Astros have dropped both games in Seattle against the division-leading Mariners since Abreu’s been back.

You’ll notice that the Astros recalled Abreu while on the road – you think to avoid the embarrassment of fans boo’ing him at Minute Maid Park? Of course the Astros are aware of their fans' smoldering disgust with Abreu.

It’d be unfair to jeer Abreu, actually. He’s trying. He just can’t do it anymore. He’s washed. What do fans expect, Abreu to retire from baseball and tell the Astros they don’t have to pay the $30+ million still on his contract? Ain’t gonna happen. Contracts are guaranteed in baseball and even if Abreu would be OK with ripping up the deal, the players union would refuse to let the Astros off the hook for the money.

If you want to blame somebody for the Abreu disaster, point a finger at Astros owner Jim Crane for OK’ing the deal to sign him, point another finger at Crane-whisperer Jeff Bagwell for brokering the deal, and a pinky at general manager Dana Brown for supporting the idea of bringing Abreu back to the big leagues.

At least Brown appears to be an Abreu backer. Although he should think twice before making ridiculous comments about Abreu. Explaining why he thought Abreu was ready to face Major League pitching despite going 0-7 including three strikeouts and hitting into a double play, Brown said, with a straight face, “It’s not really about the hits. We want to make sure he’s getting quality at bats.”

Three strikeouts in seven at bats? Grounding into a double play? Quality at bats?

This is how they play baseball in the Bizarro World. It’s not really about hits? How about the final score of games? Do those matter? Because the Astros have lost both games since Abreu rejoined the team.

This is the same Dana Brown who said the Astros were sending Joey Loperfido back to the minors because he strikes out too much. Checking the back of Loperfido’s baseball card (Brown’s favorite hobby), the rookie batted .333 with 13 hits in 39 at bats during his stay with the Astros. Abreu has eight hits in 77 at bats.

Wait I forgot, it’s not really about the hits.

So what is really about? It’s the money. The Astros signed Abreu to a $58.5 million contract before last season. The contract has all this season plus next season on the books.

Playing someone just because you’re paying him stupid money is an idiotic reason. Jose Abreu was awful last season, and this year he’s taking awful to new lows. He is hurting the team. Everybody can see it. Well, almost everybody.

Fans sure see it. If they can’t boo Abreu at Minute Maid Park this week, they can unload on X (formerly Twitter). Here are some of the kinder comments.

“Please just end the Jose Abreu experiment.”

“You have to get Jose Abreu off this team.”

“This team deserves every loss it gets as long as it continues to play Jose Abreu at first base.”

“He is straight up cancer to the team.”

So what is the solution? The team said it struggled deciding what to do to make room for Abreu rejoining the team. They decided on sending Loperfido back to the minors.

The right answer what to do about Abreu – then and now - is staring them in the face and they refuse to accept it.

Suck it up and pay Abreu to stay away.