3 high-risk Astros players biting fingernails ahead of MLB non-tender deadline

Starting in the third week of November, the Houston Astros and every other team in MLB have some important deadlines coming up. Nov. 19th will bring decisions on qualifying offers from those that received them -- including Alex Bregman, who most certainly will reject it. The 'Stros must also make 40-man roster moves to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft on Tuesday as well.

On that following Friday, Nov. 22, the next big deadline arrives, as that is when the non-tender deadline looms. That means teams will have to further lock in their roster decisions and decide which semi-expensive players might be extraneous.

While the Astros don't have any overly impactful choices to make at the non-tender deadline, how they handle the impending crunch will not only determine how much roster space they will have going into the teeth of the offseason, but will give everyone more clarity on how much money Houston will have to spend. It could earmark how aggressively they are looking to clear their payroll in order to make changes.

When is MLB's non-tender deadline? Everything Astros fans need to know

The MLB non-tender deadline falls on Friday, Nov. 22nd at 5:00 PM CST this year. Basically, the way the non-tender deadline works is that all arbitration eligible players first have to be "tendered" a contract. If a player is tendered, then the arbitration process and subsequent negotiations between the player and team proceed until the arbitration filing deadline in mid-January.

However, if a player is non-tendered, then they become a free agent immediately and join the pool of guys looking for employment elsewhere in 2025. Last year, Houston didn't non-tender any players, but that could change this go-around.

Astros non-tender deadline: 10 players to be cut loose or offered contracts

Most of the Astros' decisions with the non-tender deadline are very straightforward. Framber Valdez, Kyle Tucker, Mauricio Dubón, Jeremy Peńa, and Bryan Abreu are essentially locks to get tendered contracts among the Astros' arbitration eligible players. Jose Urquidy and Penn Murfee were already sent packing, which answered the questions around those two.

That leaves three players below (including their projected arbitration salaries) whose futures are in question.

• Chas McCormick, OF ($3.3 million)
• Jake Meyers, OF ($2.2 million)
• Luis Garcia, RHP ($1.875 million)

Garcia's elbow injury could give the Astros some pause as to how he will look once he takes the mound again. However, Garcia was also relatively close to returning at the end of the 2024 season, and given that his arbitration figure is pretty cheap and Houston is already losing Justin Verlander and Yusei Kikuchi, the odds seem pretty good that he is gonna stick around. If he doesn't, that means the Astros REALLY need the cash.

That leaves the Astros' outfield, which has already been a topic of conversation with Dana Brown and others this offseason. Houston still seems to like McCormick (or is pretending to publicly, at least) and, at $3.3 million, he is cheap enough to potentially give another chance to, despite his down and injury-filled 2024 season.

Meyers, on the other hand, could be on the chopping block. Brown didn't exactly give Meyers the same vote of confidence he did last offseason, as he clearly has McCormick ahead of him on his personal depth chart.

Meyers' defense is great, but a guy that hits .220 every year with marginal-at-best power and little value on the base paths is hard to warrant giving playing time to every day. Of these three candidates, Meyers certainly feels like the most likely to get non-tendered, despite his low projected salary.

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