Astros may get surprise late season boost thanks to quicker than expected recovery

Eric Cole

Houston Astros v Los Angeles Dodgers / Meg Oliphant/GettyImages

The Houston Astros' trade deadline plans took a wild turn when the severity of Isaac Paredes' injury was revealed. The Astros had a sudden void to fill at third base in addition to all of their other roster needs, and his injury directly resulted in Houston's reunion with Carlos Correa.

While most Astros fans assumed that Paredes was likely to miss the remainder of the 2025 season, it sounds like he could return sooner than expected.

The timing of Paredes' injury could have derailed the Astros' season. Though Houston has not been playing great of late, they've managed to retain their spot atop the AL West even without Paredes in the lineup. If current reporting (and Paredes' own expectations) is to be believed, the Astros could end up with their All-Star infielder back in 2025 after all.

Isaac Paredes could be back with the Astros this season

According to The Houston Chronicle, Paredes underwent a Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injection in an attempt to avoid surgery on his admittedly severely injured hamstring. If Paredes wanted to give that a shot before going under the knife, so be it, and it is certainly his right to at least attempt to avoid surgery.

In that same report, it was stated that Paredes is amplifying a social media post that has a graphic of him with the caption "Coming Soon!!! Stronger..." which gives some credence to the idea that Paredes thinks his recovery is going well.

However, Paredes' decision to go with a PRP injection instead of immediately having surgery comes with some risk. If the injection doesn't work and he ends up needing surgery down the road, not only will the Astros be without him this season, but Paredes' availability at the start of the 2026 season could be in question as well.

In short, the Astros' crowded infield continues to get more and more complicated. Correa is going to be playing third base for the foreseeable future and most Astros insiders seems to think that a shift to first base for Paredes whenever he returns is far more likely than a shift to second. As it turns out, we may find out what their plan is going to be sooner than we thought.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.