Astros: Former players scattered across playoff rosters

There are several former Houston Astros players on other teams’ playoff rosters.

As a franchise that rebuilt over the past 10 years, the Houston Astros have former players scattered throughout the league, and a lot of them have made it to the expanded playoffs. We dug deep into playoff rosters to find these former ‘Stros.

To start it off, former Astros platoon player Marwin Gonzalez, who played third base for the Twins in the Wild Card Series, was a pivotal player in the 2017 World Series. He played seven seasons in Houston before signing with Minnesota.

Everyone remembers him as the player who could do anything, and in his 2017 season, we saw the best of him. Gonzalez hit .303 with an OPS of .907, both career highs. He also finished 19th in AL MVP voting. Ever since then, we have seen a very regressed Gonzalez who could be out of the league in the next five years.

On the White Sox, former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel is part of their rotation. He pitched to a 1.99 ERA in 11 starts this year after spending last season with the Braves, but he took the loss in Game Two of Chicago’s Wild Card series against the A’s.

Moving on to Oakland, Tony Kemp, Mike Fiers, Robbie Grossman and Ramón Laureano all played for the Astros or in their system. Kemp was a fan favorite, one of the many up and down players from 2016-2019, which ended up making him expendable for the Astros. He was out of options and was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Martin Maldonado in 2019.

Next is the the most hated former Astro ever. Fiers unveiled the sign stealing scandal right after the 2019 World Series. He played in Houston from 2015 to 2017 before being granted free agency. Fiers won AL Player of the Week in August of 2015 after his first no-hitter.

This name might not be remembered by many fans, but Grossman was a Houston Astro from 2013-2015 and was a part of the first AL Astros playoff team. Grossman had very subpar stats and was released in November 2015. Since then, he has been a slight journeyman, but he found a hot bat in Oakland.

Lastly, Laureano never actually played a game as an Astro, but he was a part of the system. He was traded to the A’s after the 2017 season for Brandon Bailey. Earlier this year, the two players faced each other.