5 players that played for the Astros this year that you probably forgot about

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While the division race remains close thanks to the Rangers waking up lately, the Houston Astros still find themselves in first place with 15 games to go in the 2023 season. In previous years, Houston would coast to the division title and then set their sights on the postseason. However, the 2023 season has been anything but easy.

In addition to just having better competition this season from the Rangers and Mariners in 2023, the Astros have been ravaged by injuries this year. The rotation was particularly decimated by the loss of Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia for the season and Jose Urquidy also missed a bunch of time. Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve being on the shelf for a while severely hurt the offense as well. The Astros were able to weather those losses somehow, but that also meant that a lot of players got rotated on and off the roster as Houston searched for answers.

Here are 5 players that played for the Astros this year that you probably forgot about

When any team has to figure roster issues on the fly, that often means that unlikely players end up having to play. Sometimes that is because the Astros needed a spot starter or fresh bullpen arm and the ideal call-up candidates weren't available at that specific time. Other times it was because there was no clear candidate to call up and Houston was just trying to figure out something that would actually work. Whatever the reasons were, the end result was a nice handful of players that didn't play a lot for the Astros and who will likely fade further into obscurity as time passes.

Let's take a look at some of the players that played for the Astros this season that you may have forgotten about.

Bligh Madris

Bligh Madris is on the upper end of what could be considered for this list as he did play 12 games for the Astros this season when Jose Abreu couldn't figure out how to hit a baseball. However, you may not have noticed him much because, well, he didn't do all that much.

In 30 plate appearances with Houston in 2023, Madris slashed .154/.267/.192 which was somehow even worse than Abreu at his worst. The experiment didn't last very long and Madris made his way back to Triple-A where he has posted a mediocre .756 OPS this season.

Cesar Salazar

Another guy that is pushing it in terms of games played is Cesar Salazar as he appeared in 13 games for Houston this season, although he only had 19 plate appearances. Most of Salazar's playing time came early in the season, although he did have a short stint in June as well. This was when his status as the organization's third catcher meant they needed to have him handy to give breaks at the end of games and Yainer Diaz hadn't solidified his position just yet.

It was probably for the best that Houston sent Salazar back down to Triple-A as his .269 OPS was essentially unplayable. However, he will probably remain an option in the case of emergency or injury to Maldonado or Diaz.

Rylan Bannon

Rylan Bannon is the typical journeyman that can fill in on short notice and not be completely embarrassing, but is not an ideal long-term solution. Bannon made a two game cameo appearance at the end of April in the immediate wake of Chas McCormick going on the injured list.

Predictably, Bannon didn't do much in his two games of work as he was hitless in six plate appearances with three strikeouts. He has also not had the best season in the minors with a .230/.349/.430 line although he has at least hit 16 homers.

Shawn Dubin

Over on the pitching side, the Astros have surprisingly had a lot of guys play a significant amount in 2023. However, Shawn Dubin was not one of those guys as he made just three appearances when the Astros were trying to figure out how to cover innings from mid June to the beginning of July.

Overally, Dubin's numbers don't look very good thanks to the Mets torching him during his first long relief appearance. Notably though, he did get a start against the Rangers at the beginning of July and limited them to one run over four innings of work. Overall, Dubin hasn't had the best of seasons and probably doesn't factor into things in the long-term, but it was nice to see him get a shot.

Matt Gage

Slightly up the usage ladder here is Matt Gage who filled in for Ryne Stanek while he dealt with a family emergency and also had a short three game stint in May. For a fill in bullpen guy, Gage has actually been pretty good in the big leagues.

While his minor league 4.89 ERA and opposing hitters hitting .289 off of him certainly doesn't look inspiring, Gage posted a 2.70 ERA in his limited time in the big leagues and struck out better than a batter an inning. A cursory look at his minor league track record seems to show that that probably won't stick, but it was quite helpful to get some quality appearances out of Gage when the Astros were scrambling a bit.

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