Astros options with Robinson Chirinos and Martin Maldonado free agents

The Astros’ 2019 season is now over and it’s time to plan for 2020. With Robinson Chirinos and Martin Maldonado now free agents, what are Houston’s options?

The 2019 World Series is behind us and I’m sure Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and the front office are already looking toward the future. As of 9:00 a.m. yesterday, all eligible players have officially become free agents. Houston has eight such players now on the market, and with Chirinos and Maldonado now free agents, the Astros have no catchers on their official roster.

They have a few different options to mull over this offseason to fill the catcher position for the upcoming season. Let’s take a look at some of the scenarios that Houston has to choose from to fill that gap in the roster.

The one option that I feel is highly likely is to re-sign one or both of the catchers that ended the season with the Astros, Chirinos and Maldonado. Chirinos came over to Houston on a one-year contract after spending most of his career with the cross-state rival Texas Rangers. Maldonado became an Astro by way of a trade just prior to the trade deadline, as he also did in 2018.

Between Chirinos and Maldonado, if they were to just re-sign one, I would definitely say that Chirinos is the odds-on favorite. He developed a great on-field relationship with a lot of the pitching staff. He and Justin Verlander developed a special bond that was appreciated by both Verlander and AJ Hinch.

"“They worked really hard to develop that chemistry and that trustworthiness between the two of them,” Hinch said. “And it’s produced one of the more remarkable pitcher-catcher combos in baseball.” via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle"