Astros: Best, worst free agent signings of past decade

With the 2010s coming to a close, here’s a look at the Astros best and worst free agent signings of the decade.

The end of a decade is a great time to stop and look back at all that happened over the last 10 years. The Astros have played some of the best baseball the game has ever seen, and also some of the worst. It’s been a roller coaster decade for this club.

We recently went back and looked at the best and worst trades the Astros made in the 2010s, so now we turn our attention to free agency. The club was not a major player in free agency for most of this decade, preferring to build through the draft and via trades.

In fact, the largest free agent contract the Astros gave out was the four-year, $52 million deal with Josh Reddick prior to the 2017 season. That one doesn’t make either of our best or worst lists, as they got great production from Reddick in 2017 and he’s been a serviceable everyday player in the two years since. A decent deal, but nothing to write home about.

For the most part, the Astros looked to find buy-low options with minimal risk involved, taking chances on several veterans looking to rebound. Even in the many such instances when the player did not perform well, the club wasn’t stuck with a bad contract or paying a lot of money for an underperforming guy, so it’s hard to classify them as bad signings.

With that in mind, here are the best and worst Astros free agent deals of the decade.