Opening Day 2022: Houston Astros Three Biggest Strengths

The Astros offense is once again one of the best in the majors.

It comes as no surprise that the calling card of the most successful stretch in Astros history is once again their biggest strength. Even despite the loss of Correa, the Astros return Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Michael Brantley, reigning batting champion Yuli Gurriel and most importantly a healthy Alex Bregman.

Bregman suffered from soft tissue issues and an injured wrist last year that really hampered his production. After a wrist surgery and an adjustment to the aggressiveness of his running game, he could be due for a huge bounce back year.

Gurriel, the reigning batting champ, picked up where he left off and then some. He was red hot this spring hitting .421 with three homers in just 21 plate appearances. He projects to be the Astros five hole hitter and looks like he’ll be just fine despite entering his age 38 season.

On the flip side the Astros youth movement in Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker are looking to get even better, if that’s possible. Tucker will now move from the six hole to the two spot in the batting order. It will be interesting to see if it affects his production in any way.

After May 1, he led the American League in batting average (.320), slugging percentage (.600), OBP (.387) and OPS (.986) and his poor April was largely due to hitting into bad luck.

If he and Yordan take steps forward in their game there should be little to no drop-off, even with the absence of Correa.