Houston Astros: Five X-Factors to help the team #TakeItBack
By T.A. Mock
Josh Reddick, OF
The case of Josh Reddick is an interesting one. During the Houston Astros championship 2017 season, he had a career revival of sorts posting a career-high OPS of .847. He was a complete revelation and looked like a genius acquisition for the role he played in the championship run.
Unfortunately, 2018 was not nearly as kind to Reddick. He went from that career high OPS to his lowest OPS since 2013, .718. Now, that’s not a terrible number but it’s rather pedestrian and was inflated by 17 home runs. He also only generated 47 RBIs in 2018 compared to 82 in 2017.
What we’ve seen these past two years from Reddick is likely the opposite ends of his spectrum. We likely won’t see either end again the final two years of his contract as a member of the Astros with him landing somewhere in between.
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That being said, he’s had an excellent Spring where he’s been hitting almost .350 and has had an over 1.000 OPS. So, it looks like some tweaks have been made and he’s back to being a more effective hitter. He’s also a very good defender which adds to his value regardless.
If Reddick can get back closer to what he was in 2017 than 2018, the Astros will be in good shape. The team is also exploring options to become more versatile which include Reddick getting some playing time at first base. All of this helps Reddick become a potential X-Factor for the team in 2019.