Four personnel decisions the Astros have to make this offseason

God provides a time for everything. The time has come for the Houston Astros dynasty to die, and from it's ashes a new beginning of what could be the next great Astros team.

Whether you choose to understand this as Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 or "Turn Turn Turn" by The Byrds, in the end it brings you to the same place. There are hard decisions that need to be made to bring about the end of the Dynasty Era Astros and create the foundation for what the team hopes will be the new dynasty era to follow.

The 'caretaker' GM idea is dead. The builder GM idea must arise. Small tweaks and hoping for players to return from injury are no longer sufficient.

Serious decisions must be made, and they must be made this offseason. Here are the four biggest ones:

1) Extend or trade SS Jeremy Pena.

These are the only two options. Everything else is franchise malpractice. The days of Astros owner Jim Crane refusing to trade stars he is not going to keep because the team has a legitimate shot at the World Series are over. In fact, Crane made the mistake of not allowing now-former GM Dana Brown to trade RP Bryan Abreu for OF Trevor Larnach at the deadline. Larnach still had another year of team control, and Abreu will be on another team next season likely looking for a shot to close.

The team had tried to extend Pena, who then hired Scott Boras as his agent and the negotiations died on the vine. The team has shown no inclination to meet Pena's asking price, and Boras is notorious for getting his guys to free agency and scoring the biggest deals they can on the market.

This will be a Jim Crane decision, there is no doubt about that, so Crane needs to decide (and sooner rather than later) if he is authorizing his new GM to pay Jeremy Pena and make him the next in the line of Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Jose Altuve to be an Astro for life, or if he is charging that new GM to get the best Kyle Tucker-esque deal he can for the star SS.

Part of any deal involving Pena should include at a minimum a young starter and a future SS/3B.

2) Find a taker for 1B Christian Walker.

This is now a 'whatever it takes' scenario. Even if they have to eat 2/3 of his $20M deal, Walker has to go. There are too many strikeouts, too many missed RBI opportunities, and then he took shots at Astros fans. For a player who has not lived up to his contract two years in a row, a third shouldn't be permitted.

Walker isn't Jose Abreu. He isn't unplayable. He is just not worth $20M per season, and the Astros have better options in Carlos Correa and Isaac Paredes.

Paredes is not as good defensively at 3B as Correa, but the team needs to find out from Correa how much, if at all, has this tendon injury changed his mobility. If Correa's mobility has now been reduced, they should approach Correa about playing 1B.

Correa has already expressed he is willing to play new positions to help the team. Considering his slick glove, learning to pick short hops should be easy for him. At 6-foot-3, he is a big target at 1B over the 5-foot-11 Walker and similar sized Paredes. Correa's natual athleticism and his extremely high baseball IQ should help him make the transition to any position seamlessly.

Paredes has significant experience at 1B as well, and could easily play there should Correa still be able to handle 3B after his injury.

The Astros will likely have to eat significant money on Walker to move him, but if they can use that money to get themselves a hard throwing, young bullpen arm, it's worth it.

3)Yordan Alvarez cannot be a full-time DH as long as Jose Altuve is still on the team.

Yordan isn't a good defender because he has limited range, I understand that. I'm also willing to accept that because of his offense. Yordan just made a career-low 24 starts in LF this season. That number has to go way up.

Why? Two reasons. A) despite his superhero offensive numbers as a DH, for his career he's basically Thanos at the plate when he plays LF. As a DH he hit .305 this season with a .422 OBP and .997 OPS. As a LF, he hit a ridiculous .376 with a .486 OBP and 1.239 OPS. That is like going from All- Star to prime Babe Ruth.

It's not just this season either. For his career, Yordan is a .286 hitter with a .386 OBP and .937 OPS as a DH. He hits .335 with a .423 OBP and 1.065 OPS as a LF. Those LF numbers are over 1001 PA, so it's a very large sample size.

Altuve has shown the opposite in the past 2 seasons. Father Time has finally begun winning the battle against the franchise icon, stealing his bat and rendering his defendive range to a minimum. It hurts to see Altuve age in front of our eyes, and this is why the team needs to do all it can to put Altuve in the best possible position to succeed as his plays through his final three years of his contract. That means putting him at DH more. A lot more.

This season, Altuve did not get many reps at DH. In fact, Altuve had just seven games this season at DH. His OPS showed he was stronger as a DH though. While a small sample size, Altuve's OPS at DH this season was .922. That's prime Altuve. His OPS while playing 2B was only .689.

Now, to avoid short sample size bias, let's look at his performance last season when Altuve split time between LF, 2B, and DH. In 192 PA in LF, Altuve posted a .742 OPS. In 250 PA at 2B, he posted a .759 OPS. In 211 PA as a DH, he posted an .816 OPS. The fact the gap widened in 2026 only says that it's more important to play Altuve more at DH to help keep him strong and his bat at it's best.

A more equitable share of DH reps (essentially a 50/50 split) should result in Yordan putting up even more crazy offensive numbers and Altuve having some bounce back offensively. It will require that the Astros have a CF who can really go fetch it (Jake Meyers type but with an arm and hopefully hits better than .230) and a reserve infielder who can play top defense while being a useful offensive player (Mauricio Dubon reunion? He's a FA at season's end).

4) Find a trade partner for C Yainer Diaz.

This is about selling high on a depreciating asset. Much as the Astros missed the boat selling on Jake Meyers after a career season, they should be exploring what Diaz can fetch them on the trade market this season after he found his bat when he came off the IL.

Diaz is a perennial slow starter, but then usually finds his groove in the second half. He has terrific contact skills, skills that led the team to believe he could be an elite offensive force once he developed the pitch recognition to go along with it. Unfortunately, the pitch recognition skill has never developed. Diaz still freely swings at pitches he should lay off, and rolls them over for easy ground ball outs.

Defensively, Diaz has regressed each season. His pitch framing is poor. While maybe that isn't as important as it used to be with the advent of ABS, his pop times have gone from 6th to 40th in four seasons. This is important because that slower delivery time impacts his ability to throw out runners despite his elite arm strength.

Generally players do not become better defenders as they age, especially at the catcher position. Therefore, the case here is that Diaz' 2026 season mirrored his 2024 season, in which he was an above average hitting catcher.

His career .280 AVG for a catcher is terrific. His .307 OBP is awful, but his .762 career OPS is good for a 112 OPS+, so he should have pretty strong value considering he hit well in 2026 and he has 2 years left of team control.

That said, I expect his production will wane, and right now is his peak value. If it is possible to get a solid return on him, I think it makes sense to get it. Jason Schiavone was the Astros MiLB player of the year and posted a 30/30 season as a catcher. He may currently project as a low average, high on-base type hitter with power and speed, but it's possible to improve average over time with better pitch selection.

Walker Janek had a tough start to his minor league season, but rebounded to hit well, especially May - August, and is likely just a year away from being in the majors as well. Schiavone is also a solid 1B and there is a near future with the potential for both Schiavone and Janek in the lineup.

Teams will be very interested in a catcher with team control who can hit for power. It would be a good time to explore selling high.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow