5 Astros storylines to follow as 2022 season begins

Astros’ Opening Day is set for Thursday, April 7, in Anaheim against the Angels, but what should you know heading into the season?

We had to suffer though a little longer offseason and learn more about collective bargaining agreement than any non-lawyer should have to, but here we are on the cusp of the 2022 Major League Baseball season for the Houston Astros.

The Astros are favorites to win the American League West, but there are questions that have to be answered before that can happen. From injuries, to shortstop to centerfield to the batting order, we will tackle some of the burning questions as the 2022 season dawns.

There are plenty of storylines around the league to follow, but we care about the team that resides in Houston, so with that said here are five Astros storylines to follow through the 2022 season.

How will Justin Verlander pitch in 2022?

While it was initially reported as a two-year deal with the Astros when Verlander reupped with the team, it’s actually a one-year deal, with a player option for a second year if Verlander reaches 130 innings.

Over his career, Verlander has averaged 6.2 innings in his 454 starts, but he’s also never come off of Tommy John surgery. Manger Dusty Baker has already indicated the Astros will watch Verlander closely, especially early.

Verlander looked fantastic this spring, striking out 15 of the 55 batters he faced, giving up 11 hits and four walks enroute to a 1.32 ERA. With the absence of Lance McCullers Jr. for an unknown period of time, the Astros will need at least 130 innings from Verlander in 2022.

How will Jeremy Peña stand in the shadow of Carlos Correa?

There’s a new shortstop in town, his name is Jeremy Pena, and he’s had a fantastic spring, batting .389 as of Sunday with a couple of long balls and eight RBI in 18 spring at bats.

That’s nice, but other than gaining a little confidence means zero when the real games begin later this week.  Back in 2015, Carlos Correa hit .279 with 22 home runs, 68 RBI, an OPS+ of 135 and a WAR of 4.3 as a rookie.

Pena’s projections are much lower than that, not to mention lower than Correa’s 2022 production and that’s not even counting Correa’s defense, where his 12 outs above average placed him in the 98th percentile.

Pena could be the shortstop of the future, but comparing the two is unfair and we should expect lower production from this position, both offensively and defensively in 2022, while Correa received the highest AAV contract for a reason.

How will the centerfield platoon work out?

With presumed starting center fielder Jake Meyers out for an unknown period of time, Baker has made the case for Jose Siri to see his share of time at the position.

“It don’t scare me,” Baker said. “I’d rather have a little bit of wildness and calm him down than I would to put some wildness in somebody. That’s how I feel … This guy, he has a lot (of) talent.”

I’ve seen this coming for a while, not only in the way Baker talks about Siri, but the way he talked about Chas McCormick, too, appearing to weight a few spring training at bats more than 320 plate appearances McCormick had in 2021.

Admittedly, I favor McCormick in this battle, while understanding there’s likely a role for Siri, too. McCormick is often dinged for his strikeouts, but if you check the numbers you’ll see Siri, albeit in a much smaller sample, actually has a higher strikeout rate than McCormick.

While Siri may have the edge in speed, I don’t think it’s a question who the better defender between the two is. This should be a temporary issue until Meyers returns, but who knows. We actually were led to believe McCullers, Jr. would be able to pitch in last years World Series at one point, too.

Will Jose Altuve continue to leadoff?

Baker said he would like for someone other than Altuve to leadoff, but the problem is there’s no real candidate to do so. The righty batted leadoff in 676 of his 678 plate appearances in 2021, and he was pretty good at it.

There’s a couple of theories here and one is you only lead off once – in the first inning – and otherwise it’s just the luck of how the batting order falls as to who leads off the next inning and so on.

The other theory is the leadoff hitter has a role, no matter when he gets to the plate, to get on base and set the table for the RBI guys. Sounds like Baker is a believer in the latter.

McCormick could be an option, but he hit only .182 in 11 at bats there last season and his swing and miss style is not really what you’re looking for at the top of the order. Peña has led off a couple of times in the spring games, but it would be unfair to add that pressure to the pressure cooker of having to replace Correa, at least early in the season.

It seems that Altuve is the man, at least for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime during the season a change is made, especially if Pena holds his own at the plate.

Astros Orbit:

Outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. was released by the Miami Marlins.