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5 Astros players who need to step up before it’s too late
The Astros are in a decent spot, but they have a few guys that need to be better if they want to be real contenders.
Going into the month of July, the Houston Astros find themselves five games back of the Texas Rangers in the American League West. They have underperformed their run differential a little bit, but overall they have been a very good team that just so happens to be in a division with another team that has just played extremely well in 2023 in the Rangers.
Not everything has gone to plan for the Astros, though. Yordan Alvarez's oblique injury has loomed large for an offense that has been decidedly middling this season. Other guys like Lance McCullers Jr., Jose Urquidy, and Luis Garcia have also been out with injuries of their own. There have also been other Astros that have underperformed expectations, but every team has at least a couple of those guys each year.
However, given the competition Houston has in the division from the Rangers and the lurking and motivated Angels, the Astros don't have a ton of time to start putting things together. In an ideal world, they will be able to make some additions at the trade deadline that provide the roster a big boost. Even if that does happen, Houston still needs a few guys that are definitely sticking around to improve.
Here are the Astros players that need to step up before its too late
It would be easy to identify the worst performing Astros and just point at them and say "these guys need to better", but there is more nuance to Houston's situation than that. Some of those type of guys are on this list to be sure. There are also guys that have been fine, but that Houston needs to take that next step to be realistic contenders to defend their World Series title.
Without further delay, here are the Astros that need to step up really soon.
The Astros need Jose Abreu to be the guy they paid for
Jose Abreu is the easiest name to put at the top of this list as he was a marquee move that the Astros made this past offseason. When Houston signed Abreu to a three year, $58.5 million deal, Houston was hoping that he would at least be the guy that he was in 2022 with the White Sox where he posted 3.9 fWAR at the plate. They certainly would have been ecstatic if they got his 2020 AL MVP pace or the numbers he put up early in his career, but getting a good hitter with power was the baseline expectation.
Unfortunately, that is not how things have panned out thus far at all. Through 324 plate appearances with Houston this season, Abreu has slashed .236/.287/.341 with six homers which adds up to a career-worst (by a mile) 73 wRC+. When you combine that with having negative defensive value and you have the third worst position player by fWAR (-0.8) among qualified hitters in all of baseball.
There was always going to be risk associated with signing a guy who was going to be playing the season as a 36 year old, but no one thought he would drop off THIS much. One of the things that the Astros need most is more power in their lineup and if Abreu can figure out how to baseball again, it could take their offense to the next level. There are some positive signs lately there at least as Jose does have two homers in his last four games and he is on a seven game hitting streak. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come.
The Astros' Cristian Javier has been fine, but the team needs even more from him
Lets get this out of the way: Cristian Javier has been just fine in the Astros' rotation. He has posted a reasonable 3.72 ERA and 1.5 fWAR in 16 starts this season. He has made real improvements in his walk rate in 2023 while limiting hard contact and getting guys to chase at a nice rate. He has been a pretty good pitcher this season and no one is arguing otherwise.
However, the Astros need him to be better than that if they want to compete. Framber Valdez has been amazing this season for Houston, but having a genuinely strong #2 starter is going to be important especially in key series down the stretch. One area in Javier's game that has dropped off considerably in 2023 is his strikeout rate which sits at 8.07 K/9 which, when compared to the 11+ K/9 he posted the previous two seasons, is less than ideal.
If he can start putting more batters away himself, the rest of the results will come and the Astros will feel even better about that contract extension they gave him during the offseason.
The Astros need Martin Maldonado to stop being terrible
Houston has had a strange attachment to Martin Maldonado for a while now, but previously it made more sense. Maldonado was a highly rated defensive catcher who was very familiar with the Astros' pitching staff. He was never a good hitter except during the COVID shortened 2020 season, but Martin made up for that more or less with his defensive acumen.
However, 2023 has seen a massive dropoff from Maldonado defensively to the point where he is all but a waste of a roster spot. Our friends over at Call to the Pen put together a really nice write-up on Maldonado's shortcomings recently that you should definitely give a read here. The short version is that whatever you prefer when it comes to defensive metrics, Maldonado has regressed in basically all of them. The best course of action is probably to bring in another catcher, but at the bare minimum Maldonado needs to figure out how to provide some value on the field or the Astros will be operating at a massive handicap the rest of the season.
The Astros need Jeremy Pena to take a step forward at the plate
Here again we have a player in Jeremy Pena that has been a very reasonable, if unexciting, player. Coming off his excellent rookie campaign, he has been good defensively at a premium position while slashing .250/.305/.402 at the plate. That adds up to being the fifth best player in the Astros' lineup by fWAR at 1.4 in 2023. In short, Pena has been far from the Astros' biggest problem.
The problem, again, is that Houston offense that needs a boost and while Pena may not have the same expectations at the plate that Abreu has, the Astros do need him to be an above average hitter and that is where he falls short. At a 96 wRC+ this season, he needs to be doing more at the plate. He doesn't have to go wild like he did for stretches last year although that would be nice. A defender of Jeremy's caliber need only be at around 105 wRC+ to be an extremely valuable player that would give the rest of the offense a welcome boost. Houston just has to hope that he can get there and boosting his 5.3% walk rate would be a nice place to start.
The Astros' bullpen could sure use a better second half from Ryne Stanek
We wanted to include a bullpen arm here and Rafael Montero is the easiest target here given that he both has been terrible and is owed a bunch of money. However, he is all but a lost cause at this point, so we will go with Ryne Stanek here as a guy that needs to step up out of the bullpen. His 4.21 ERA in 28 appearances is okay but not great and his strikeout rate of 9.82 K/9 is perfectly reasonable.
For him to take that next step towards being a consistently reliable reliever, he is going to have to get the walks under control. He has always walked a lot of batters, but a 5.61 BB/9 is just not sustainable when it comes to long-term success. Stanek's stuff is legitimately exciting, but giving up so many free passes is impacting batters' willingness to chase after his pitches out of the zone. If he makes that step, though, then the Houston bullpen gets a whole lot deeper.
More Astros News at Climbing Tal's Hill
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