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While the Houston Astros' 2024 season is over after their early exit from the playoffs, and most baseball fans' eyes are on the remaining teams, the offseason news mill is already turning for Houston. Between the early roster speculation and the season post-mortems, it has actually been a pretty eventful start to the Astros' offseason so far.
Astros' Yordan Álvarez a finalist for Hank Aaron Award after tremendous 2024 season
True to form, Yordan Álvarez quietly put together another fantastic season for the Astros. While it may have been lost this season due to some historic offensive performances elsewhere in the league, Álvarez's .308/.392/.567 slash line and 35 homers set the pace for Houston, and represented a huge reason why the Astros were able to turn their season around at all.
Thankfully, it appears as though Álvarez's 2024 campaign is getting at least some love from the national scene, as he was named a finalist for the 2024 Hank Aaron Award, which is given to the top offensive player in each league. Álvarez is highly unlikely to win, given the seasons that Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., and others had, but it is still nice to see him get some recognition.
Astros could entertain switching Zach Dezenzo to first base ahead of 2025 season
During the Astros' roster shuffle in the second half of the 2024 season, one of the more intriguing moves they made was to promote prospect Zach Dezenzo to shore up their lineup. While Dezenzo didn't do quite enough to stick around in Houston in 2024, he is very clearly on the Astros' 2025 radar at an intriguing position.
With prospect Brice Matthews looking more and more likely as Houston's replacement for Alex Bregman (assuming that Bregman does leave in free agency), Astros beat writer Chandler Rome floated the idea that Houston could entertain switching Dezenzo to first base next season. Given the team's lack of production at first, combined with the obvious lack of confidence in Jon Singleton going forward, such a switch isn't an uninteresting notion.
Dana Brown's recent comments didn't inspire a ton of confidence in Astros reunion with Yusei Kikuchi
While Bregman's future is getting all the press at the moment, there is also still the matter of whether or not Houston will make an earnest attempt to bring Yusei Kikuchi back this offseason. Kikuchi was a tremendous asset for the Astros after he was acquired at the trade deadline, but he is now set to become a free agent and it is unclear if the Astros have the motivation (or the money) to continue that partnership.
Based on Astros GM Dana Brown's recent comments on Kikuchi, Houston fans shouldn't hold their breath that Kikuchi will return. While Brown made sure to laud Kikuchi for his performance with the team in 2024, he noted that the Astros have a lot of arms coming back from injury in 2025, and that the rotation looks "pretty stacked" as is next season.