Astros Spring Notes: A Flurry of Roster Cuts

One more day closer to Opening Day, one more round of roster cuts for the Astros.

This year’s Astros roster is stacked left and right with talented players. Unfortunately, this depth on the active roster doesn’t leave much room for the prospects.

For example, A.J. Reed and Colin Moran both had strong showings in Spring Training. The promise that was initially shown in previous seasons was on display in 2017.

In years past that would’ve been good enough to make the Astros Opening Day roster. Not this year though. And they aren’t the only ones.

Reed, who was in the competition for the first base job, had four homes runs and an 1.111 OPS in 36 at-bats. On the other side of the diamond Moran finished his major league camp with tw home runs and an 1.050 OPS in 36 at-bats as well.

Tyler White, who was last year’s Spring Training darling, and Teoscar Hernandez will also join Reed and Moran in Minor League camp. White posted just a .593 OPS and Hernandez with a .572 OPS.

Yesterday’s cuts are quite frankly of no surprise. The Astros are committed to Yulieski Gurriel, Carlos Beltran and Alex Bregman on the active roster. This just leaves little to no room for prospects to make their mark on the major league roster.

Then there was another roster move at catcher, which is sort of interesting.

The last remaining piece of the first Jed Lowrie trade to the Oakland Athletics, Max Stassi has had an up-and-down experience with Houston. In just 20 at-bats, Stassi only collected three hits.

Once considered the Astros top catching prospect, Stassi has witnessed the outside acquisitions of Evan Gattis and Brian McCann usurp his opportunity. Ineffectiveness has played a role but so has injuries.

Stassi will remain in the Astros system despite running out of options as he cleared waivers. He will likely be the Astros first choice from the minors in case of a Gattis or McCann injury.

Next: Triple-A Fresno looks to be loaded with MLB Talent

Opening Day is rapidly approaching and the Astros roster is beginning to take shape like everyone envisioned. More cuts are coming though and there could be some surprises in store.

**Statistics courtesy of MLB.com**