5 Astros storylines to follow as 2022 season begins

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.