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The Houston Astros are nothing if not nostalgic. Few teams throughout Major League Baseball pursue reunions with former players more than the Astros. Houston's trade deadline reunion with Carlos Correa is just one glaring example.
But under no circumstances should the Astros even think about bringing former catcher Martin Maldonado back to Houston. The San Diego Padres released the veteran backstop earlier this week after their splurge at the trade deadline left Maldonado without a roster spot.
While Yainer Diaz — though he's been hitting better of late — and Victor Caratini have both underperformed in 2025, Maldonado's stats are beyond horrid this season. The Astros would literally have to exhaust all options at every level of their farm system before they consider such a reunion.
Padres just paved the way for an Astros reunion with Martin Maldonado, but Houston fans are begging to avoid it
Maldonado had a nice run with the Astros — though it was considerably longer than it should've been thanks to former manager Dusty Baker. The longtime Astros catcher set up behind the dish from 2019-2023. Maldonado also had a brief run with the Astros organization back in 2018. During his six collective seasons in Houston, Maldonado hit just .191/.273/.350.
His time in San Diego this season hasn't yielded much better results. Now 38 years old, Maldonado owns a .204/.245/.327 slash line on the year with just 10 extra base hits in 64 games. Quite frankly, one could even question the Padres sanity in signing Maldonado this past offseason after he hit just .119/.174.230 with the Chicago White Sox last season.
To be fair, Maldonado was always known more his glove than his bat. The veteran took home a Gold Glove Award back in 2017 while playing for the Los Angeles Angels, but the new metrics don't really favor Maldonado's work behind the dish. Over the past three seasons, Maldonado has been worth -18 defensive runs saved (DRS) and -28 outs above average (OAA).
While the Astros have shown a penchant over the years to reunite with former players, this is definitely one signing that GM Dana Brown and the front office should avoid at all costs.