MLB Offseason Preview - Houston Astros

Houston Astros

American League	West Division
84-78	11.0 GB of Division Lead
Manager: A.J. Hinch	GM: Jeff Luhnow
AAA Affiliate Fresno Grizzlies	AA Affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 24th	OPS – 14th	Runs – 15th	HR – 14th	SB – 9th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 15th	K/9 – 16th	H/9 – 23rd
Relief Pitching	ERA – 8th	K/9 – 2nd	H/9 – 6th

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	SB	WAR
2B	Jose Altuve	.338	.396	.531	24	96	30	7.7
SS	Carlos Correa	.274	.361	.451	20	96	13	5.9
RF	George Springer	.261	.359	.457	29	92	9	5.0

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	G/GS	Record	IP/Saves	ERA	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
P	Chris Devenski	48 G/5 GS	4-4	108.1 IP	2.16	104	20	184	2.8
RP	Will Harris	66 G	1-2	64.0 IP	2.25	69	15	177	1.7
SP	Lance McCullers	14 GS	6-5	81.0 IP	3.22	106	45	123	1.6

Trades That Occurred During the Season

• Traded P Scott Feldman to Toronto for P Lupe Chavez
• Traded C Alfredo Gonzalez to the Chicago White Sox for cash

Impending Free Agents

• LF Colby Rasmus
• SP Doug Fister
• 3B Luis Valbuena
• C Jason Castro

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
P	Francis Martes	AA
OF	Kyle Tucker	A+
P	Forrest Whitley	Rookie
P	David Paulino	AAA
OF	Derek Fisher	AAA

Team MVP

• Jose Altuve is most definitely the Astros best player and arguably the best player in the American League and is an MVP finalist this year.  He has been incredibly consistent since he became a regular player in 2012 and somehow continues to get better.  He led the league in batting average this season for the second time, as well as led the league in hits for the third consecutive season.  Altuve also developed his power game more this season, having career highs in home runs and RBIs and, had the Astros made the playoffs this season, would probably be guaranteed to be the AL MVP this season.

Success/Failure

• Failure - The Astros made the playoffs last year and certainly had aspirations of returning there this season and were even considered World Series contenders.  Because of them not making the playoffs, I have to grade that as a failure.  Their pitching staff was largely responsible for their downturn, especially in their starting rotation, where reigning Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel regressed greatly to the tune of a 4.55 ERA.  His season wasn't quite as bad as his ERA suggests, as his FIP was 3.87, meaning that the aspects of the game that he can control were better than his overall results.  Their lineup was quite productive outside of a few spots and their best position players were also some of their youngest players.  Their experiment with Carlo Gomez ended up not working out and they released him, leaving a hole in center field. One bright spot was that they were able to get some of their prospects playing time at the majors to prepare for 2017.

Offseason Outlook

• The Astros desperately need starting pitchers for next season and three free agents that could fill this need are Rich Hill, Jason Hammel, and Ivan Nova.  They need a catcher since they chose to not re-sign Jason Castro.  Wilson Ramos is one free agent catcher that they could be interested in and they have been linked to Yankees' catcher Brian McCann, who would give them a left-handed bat in their lineup.  McCann is expensive but the Yankees have said that they would pay half of the salary that he is due over the next two years.  Other players that the Astros have been connected to are Carlos Beltran, who would fit in at Designated Hitter or outfield, Mike Napoli (DH/1B), Mark Trumbo (DH/OF), and Jose Bautista, who would also fit in at DH or in the outfield.  Perhaps most shocking is that Houston has shown interest in trading for future Hall-of-Famer Miguel Cabrera from Detroit, who would fit their need at first base currently and could be a DH later in his career.  This would take quite a lot to make this trade go through, but the Astros certainly have a strong enough farm system to make nearly any trade happen.  If this trade were to happen, or if they sign at least one of these free agent bats, then the Astros lineup would be even more potent than it already is.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com