Astros: Predicting 30-man roster to begin 2020 season

As camps prepare to open, we look at what the Houston Astros roster may look like on Opening Day.

If things don’t completely go south in the next month, it looks like we’ll actually have some real Major League Baseball to watch. The Houston Astros will be back on the field to try to defend their American League pennant and avenge their frustrating World Series loss.

There are plenty of new rules and provisions for this shortened 60-game season, and one of those is that teams will start with 30-man rosters. That number will go down to 28 after two weeks and to 26 after four weeks, but at least in the beginning, we’ll have some extra guys on the team.

Of course any predictions we make will be subject to change based on injury and (especially) illness, as COVID-19 is sure to impact every team to an extent. So, assuming good health, here’s how I think the team’s 30-man roster will look on Opening Day.

The Locks

We’ll start with position players. The everyday or semi-regular players will be Martin Maldonado, Yuli Gurriel, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, George Springer, Josh Reddick and Yordan Alvarez. Dustin Garneau, Aledmys Diaz, Kyle Tucker and Myles Straw will certainly be there as well. That’s 13 players so far.

On the pitching side, the players locked into roles are Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, Lance McCullers Jr, Jose Urquidy, Roberto Osuna, Ryan Pressly and Joe Smith. Josh James and Austin Pruitt are likely to occupy the last rotation spot and long relief role, while Chris Devenski and Brad Peacock should be in the pen as well. That’s 11 pitchers, for a total of 24 players thus far.

The Candidates — Position Players

At this point, I’m going to assume the Astros will carry an even split of 15 pitchers and 15 position players. I could also see them going with one extra pitcher, especially if they’re wary of stretching out the pitchers after an abbreviated “Spring Training” ramp-up period.

I have to think the first position player to make it would be Garrett Stubbs. His ability to serve as a third catcher as well as play in the infield or outfield in a pinch would make him extremely valuable. The race for the 26th roster spot was probably down to him and Straw, so Stubbs is a pretty safe bet.

With Tucker and Straw on the roster already, and with Diaz’s ability to play left field if needed, the Astros will probably go with an infielder for their final roster spot. The choice would probably come down to Abraham Toro and Jack Mayfield. This will be a tough decision that might be decided by looking at who plays better in camp.

Toro is probably limited to the corner infield positions, while Mayfield can play second, third and short. Toro will definitely have more offensive upside, though, and is a switch hitter. So do they go with Mayfield’s defensive versatility or Toro’s more potent bat? Given that Stubbs and Straw can fill in at the middle infield positions if needed, and given that Gurriel and Diaz are the only two players who can legitimately play first base, I’d give the edge to Toro. But it’ll be close.