Astros get snubbed in The Athletic’s award projections with truly bizarre exception

Predicting who will win MLB's end of season awards before Opening Day borders on being a fool's errand. While we can generally pick the players who should be in the running at the end of the year, baseball has so many variables that these types of exercises become rather preposterous. On paper, however, the Houston Astros should have a number of viable candidates.

Based on how this spring has unfolded, Cam Smith seems like a player to watch very closely in the AL Rookie of the Year race. Framber Valdez is a perennial Cy Young candidate, and Yordan Alvarez has the kind of bat that can make a run at winning AL MVP almost every year. Even with the losses of both Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, Houston still has loads of talent on of the roster.

You wouldn't be able to tell that from The Athletic's MLB awards predictions that were released on Monday. Houston was almost completely shut out by the The Athletic's staff with the notable exception of Isaac Paredes receiving an MVP vote. No, really.

Isaac Paredes was the only Astros player predicted to win AL MVP in 2025

Paredes received his lone vote from Grant Brisbee, who definitely went against the grain here, and is generally a voice who doesn't follow the trendy picks, which is honestly nice to see. While we didn't get an explanation for the vote, Brisbee was probably looking to highlight some dark horse candidates, and it's true that the Astros' home park does suit Paredes' hitting profile quite well. Still, few would bet actual dollars that Paredes would finish in the top-5 of AL MVP voting this year, let alone win it.

The most obvious snub here is Smith given how likely he is likely to make the Astros' Opening Day roster. The favorites from this round of voting (Jackson Jobe, Kristian Campbell, and Jacob Wilson) are very talented, but Smith has put up insanely loud numbers and position players are generally going to be favored over an arm like Jobe based on historical voting trends for Rookie of the Year.

Do the Astros have any surefire favorites for end of season hardware this season? No, but it was still pretty wild to see that Paredes was the only Astros player to receive a vote. These sorts of things take care of themselves, but one wonders if Houston's stars may be getting unfairly dinged based on outside perception of the Astros' offseason here.

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