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Dream Astros starting lineup for the 2024 season
By Eric Cole
Batting fifth in the dream 2024 Astros lineup, Jose Abreu at 1B
This was a troublesome spot in the lineup for this thought exercise. Ideally, we would have a righty bat to keep the right-left-right-left plan going along, but the internal options the Astros have aren't the best. A glance at the free agent market for places where upgrades could happen isn't ideal, either. Ultimately, Jose Abreu was the choice.
Before folks get upset, no one is arguing that Abreu's first season with Houston wasn't a colossal disappointment. In 141 games for Houston during the 2023 regular season, Abreu slashed just .237/.296/.383 with 18 homers and he dealt with a back injury for the bulk of the season. For the amount of money that Houston committed to him through the 2025 season, they were certainly expecting more out of him.
However, the 2023 season was such an outlier for Abreu vs. the rest of his career that we are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is closer to being the guy he was with the White Sox than he showed this season. Jose gets a full offseason to get his back completely healthy and he looked like he was back to his former self during the Astros' playoff run. That is good enough to have hope...at least for now.