Houston Astros: Post Winter Meetings Look At 25-Man Roster

While the week of the Winter Meetings is usually an active one for Jeff Luhnow, the Houston Astros and their General Manager did the bulk of their heavy-lifting prior to this week, setting themselves up nicely for this upcoming season.

While the week of the Winter Meetings is usually an active one for Jeff Luhnow, the Houston Astros and their General Manager did the bulk of their heavy-lifting prior to this week, setting themselves up nicely for this upcoming season.

The Houston Astros could still use another top-of-the-line starting pitcher but otherwise they still look like one of the best in the American League.

Things are sure to change between now and Spring Training and it’s quite possible – I’d say maybe even likely – the Houston Astros make another move before they go down to Florida, but for now, right here, I’ll leave you with how I see things playing out with this current group.

I’ll be using last year’s MLB stats for my projected lineup, rotation and bullpen.
*For batters, I’ll be using their splits against RHP/LHP

Lineup vs. RHP (AVG/OPS) Lineup vs. LHP (AVG/OPS)

CF – Springer (.256/.769)                                                                RF – Springer (.274/.945)
3B – Bregman (.269/.813)                                                              3B – Bregman (.250/.735)
2B – Altuve (.348/.942)                                                                   2B – Altuve (.306/.885)
SS – Correa (.287.839) SS – Correa (.236/.730)
DH – Beltran (.279/.805)                                                                 DH – Beltran (.338/.975)
RF – Reddick (.322/.871) C – Gattis (.288/.886)
C – McCann (.249/.770)    1B – Gurriel (.220/.537)
1B – Gurriel (.281/.739) LF – MarGo (.253/.723)
LF – Aoki (.300/.792)    CF – Marisnick (.229/.701)

Bench

C – Gattis (.230/.795)                                                                          C – McCann (.218/.662)
Util – MarGo (.255/.677)                                                                    OF – Reddick (.155/.357)
OF – Marinsck (.197/.519)                                                                 OF – Aoki (.227/.557)

Notes

Beware of small sample sizes. Alex Bregman and Yuliseki Gurriel both didn’t record many MLB at-bats. It’s reasonable to expect both to get better.

The Houston Astros lineup is stacked against righties. I like Bregman in the two-hole better than Josh Reddick because I think Bregman should stay in same spot in lineup all year instead of switching back and forth depending on a RHP or LHP on the mound. Plus he’s protected by the heart of the lineup. He’ll flourish there.

More from House of Houston

Manager A.J. Hinch has some flexibility against RHP. He can move Beltran to the OF and let Gattis DH on certain days. And with a regular bench (power/speed/util options), he can make several late-game moves and adjust positions accordingly with MarGo’s versatility.

The Houston Astros have crazy bad splits when it comes to right-handed batters struggling against lefties. Hopefully Correa spent the majority of the offseason hitting LHP because he was terrible last season against southpaws.

The truth is the Houston Astros could sign another hitter to balance their lineup more, especially against lefties. If they were to break the bank on Edwin Encarnacion they could move Gurriel to the bench against RHP and his versatility would give Hinch even more possibilities than before.

Encarnacion would be a huge addition against lefties (.242/.902) and would shift Gurriel to the OF when facing a southpaw. Encarnacion is more of a luxury than a need at this point but it would likely put the Houston Astros over the top.

Rotation

Dallas Keuchel (4.55 ERA)
Lance McCullers Jr. (3.22 ERA)
Collin McHugh (4.34 ERA)
Joe Musgrove (4.06 ERA)
Charlie Morton (4.15 ERA)

Bullpen

LR – Mike Fiers (4.48 ERA)
LR – Chris Devenski (2.16 ERA)
MR – Michael Feliz (4.48 ERA)
MR – Tony Sipp (4.95 ERA)
MR – Ashur Tolliver (5.79 ERA)
7th – Will Harris (2.25 ERA)
SU – Luke Gregerson (3.28 ERA)
CL – Ken Giles (4.11 ERA)

The rotation could certainly use a boost which is why you hear the Houston Astros interested in a guy like Quintana. If they were to acquire him, I expect Musgrove to either be included in the deal or sent to AAA, even though I’d rather him be placed in the 5th spot over Morton.

The bullpen looks rock solid. Harris/Gregerson/Giles, while not sexy by name, will likely be one of the best 7/8/9 tandems.

Tolliver was the 25th man I put on this roster. He may not make it but I figured Hinch would go with 13 pitchers and having a second LHP is probably a good idea. If Astros go with 13 hitters, Tolliver is the odd man out.

Speaking of southpaws, Sipp really needs to have a good season after last year’s disaster.

Feliz’s ERA was high but he was dominant for much of the season. Wouldn’t surprise me to see that number drop by 1.5 runs.

I’d love to see Devenski earn a spot in the rotation but I think his dominance in the pen last season will keep him there this year.

So that’s how I envision the 25-man roster if the season started today.

Luhnow and Hinch still have plenty of ammo to go out and trade for an ace or sign another player or two.

Next: Measuring Ashur Tolliver's Value

The next move I would make, as I hinted to before, would be to add Quintana to the staff. I’d try to do something around Kyle Tucker, Derek Fisher, Daz Cameron, Colin Moran.

The White Sox are already stacked with young pitchers so I’d think they’d want a hitter-heavy package for Quintana. Could that package work for the Sox?

I guess time will tell.

It would be nice to see the Astros make such a trade and it would turn them into a World Series favorite.

However, this current squad right now is certainly a playoff favorite and should make noise in October and maybe November.

Home/Houston Astros