Where does Jake Meyers belong in the Astros’ lineup?

As Jake Meyers returns to the active roster, where can we see him in the Astros’ lineup?

With Jake Meyers finishing his rehab assignment and joining the active roster, the Houston Astros‘ lineup has a few questions remain. Meyers replaced Jose Siri who was optioned Friday to Triple-A Sugar Land, taking the 40-man roster spot of Dillon Thomas who was designated for assignment.

The biggest question is how long will he platoon until he takes over as the full-time center fielder?

I give it a month, which includes the All-Star break, so in reality it’s three weeks tops, maybe less.   It all depends on how long it takes Meyers to shake off the last remaining big-league rust from his rehab and get into full gear.

Looking at prior games when the Astros had a full lineup, the next big question is where will Meyers land?  The lineup card can sometimes be questionable with manager Dusty Baker’s sequence of righty-lefty, and with veteran players struggling, anything is possible.

The last regular-season and postseason game Meyers started he hit eighth in the lineup due to his mediocre September where he slashed .155/.290/.293. That combined with the American League batting champ hitting seventh and Carlos Correa still in the lineup at fifth which made it a fitting place in the lineup for him. But so far this season, the Astros are a little different.

With Yuli Gurriel’s continued power lapse combined with his less than stellar batting average, it seems that if Meyers gets his groove back he could be hitting either in the six or seven hole. If Meyers averages play out for a full season, you could have a 20-25 home run hitting center fielder with around 100 RBI.

Now of course that’s a small sample size along with his .260 regular-season average, but that’s why fans are excited for Meyers’ return.  Those numbers are not exactly George Springer power averages, but they are close enough to make him a longterm piece to the Astros’ postseason prospects, especially when you combine Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

That trio could hit 100 home runs a season for the foreseeable future. In the end, I think this season Meyers ends up in the six hole and Gurriel and Jeremy Peña fight over the seven spot.