Astros provide Isaac Paredes injury update that offers subtle hint about his future

The early returns on the Houston Astros' trade for Isaac Paredes were really, really good. In the first half of the 2025 season, Paredes had posted an .826 OPS, and he made his second All-Star team. Given that he was only part of the return for one year of Kyle Tucker, Houston was feeling great about the move, even with Cam Smith scuffling a bit in the majors. However, disaster struck almost immediately after the All-Star break.

After suffering a severe hamstring strain in July, there were immediate short-term concerns about the state of the Astros' roster, and those concerns have bled into the offseason. Some have even openly questioned Paredes' future with Houston amidst all of the other trade chatter around the team.

Well, the odds that the Astros do indeed trade Paredes appear to be a bit lower now. In comments to the media at the Winter Meetings, general manager Dana Brown revealed that he is expecting Paredes, along with Yordan Alvarez, to be a "full go" at the start of spring training.

Isaac Paredes injury update seems to indicate Astros plan on keeping him around

Let's get the Alvarez update out of the way first. Given all of the bad news surrounding Alvarez's health last year, including a seemingly never-ending hand injury, it is nice to get word that it looks like he is on track to start the spring healthy. As much as fans may want Houston to make a splashy move this offseason, the biggest addition they can make next season is a healthy Alvarez.

Intriguing, Paredes was mentioned alongside the very-obviously-going-nowhere Alvarez in Brown's injury update. One probably shouldn't read too much into one set of comments to the media amidst the Winter Meetings madness, but it sure seems like Brown is planning on Paredes being around this coming spring.

That also tracks logically, though. In an ideal world, Houston would probably prefer to trade Christian Walker, even with the potential difficulties they may find in doing so. Given how well Paredes was playing in the first half, the Astros may simply want to get another look at him post-injury before making any decisions. Worst-case scenario, they move Paredes at the trade deadline if they really need to. That may not help the Astros right now, but the front office does seem to think that keeping Paredes helps them the most anyway.