Astro fans entered the 2019 season with the thought that the best additions to the club would be the return of a healthy Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve. While Correa seems back to his 2017 self (.297 BA/ .355 OBP/ .941 OPS with 9 HRs and 21 RBIs), Altuve is in the depths of a slump that except for one short 6 HR in 5 RBI binge has been bad.
So, let’s look at and rank those “other” off-season additions:
- Michael Brantley – This is a small nod over #2 on this list, but Brantley has been tremendous in many ways, not the least his .346/.380/.988 slash with 9 HRs and 27 RBIs. He has solidified the cleanup spot, given the Astros a much needed left-handed bat in the first five and been the ultimate professional hitter, going the other way or cranking it into the right field seats depending on the pitch. Opposing pitchers know that the BRRR brothers (Alex Bregman and Brantley) will give them a battle on every at bat.
- Wade Miley – Miley’s numbers have not been as spectacular as Brantley’s, but his performance with a 2-2 record, 3.20 ERA, 1.169 WHIP where his “worst” start is a 4 IP / 3 ER effort has been a solid win for the front office. This is a team that had to replace three of their 5 starters in the rotation. Of the three newbies (Miley, Collin McHugh and Brad Peacock), Miley has been the best and most consistent. Considering he is only costing the team $4.5 million this year, he has been a clear bargain to date.
- Robinson Chirinos – He may have been downgraded in our minds coming from the much hated Rangers, but he has been everything the team and fans could want in their new catcher. He is hitting a very good .272 BA/ .384 OBP/ .902 OPS. He is on an equivalent 162 game pace of 90 runs scored, 24 HRs, 90 RBIs. Sure he is only throwing out 20% of runners, but he seems to be doing a good job with his new pitching staff. And a big reason that George Springer has a bunch of RBIs from the leadoff spot is the fact that the lineup gets flipped with Chirinos getting on base along with his buddies at the bottom of the order.
- Aledmys Diaz – Folks may be disappointed in Diaz and say that he is not as good as Marwin Gonzalez offensively or defensively, who he is replacing. Just remember that in truth that Brantley is mostly replacing MarGo, who played more than half his games last season in left field. Diaz has been under-producing at the plate vs. his career numbers, but has come up with some key hits and home runs and has willingly jumped in at some positions (e.g. 1B and OF) where he has little or no experience. Diaz is 4th among these new arrivals, but he has been decent and at times clutch for the team.
So, how do you rank these four newcomers and how do you feel about the job the front office did in picking them up?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
82 responses to “Ranking those off-season Astros’ additions”
Tim – I saw you were talking about them possibly optioning Devo (since he has 3 options left). Who do you think they would bring up in his place?
Rodgers has been pretty solid. Hartman is coming on. Guduan and McCurry just walk too many people. What do you think? Or are you thinking of a trade?
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Dan, I know you asked Tim about it, but I was thinking about this very thing earlier and the Astros have 13 pitchers on their 25-man. When Altuve returns, a pitcher is probably going to go down.
I think sending Devo down gives him the best chance to heal what ails him, while leaving McHugh in the BP to replace him and keeping Martin in the rotation. Devenski can’t get people out consistently, and hasn’t been since lat in 2017. He’s got options. He needs to go down and figure it out.
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unless devo shows some signs of life quickly, i dont think they will wait till altuve comes back to send him down.
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AD’s stock is rising as he’s beginning to get with the program. If he can keep it up I’ll have to eat a little bit of crow. Agree with previous comments about Devo.
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This is a pretty good team we’ve got and will likely get better before Luhnow is done fine tuning.
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It sure is fun watching this team not sitting on leads, but putting games away. Peacock struggled a bit, but had the really good results. Dingers from the end of the lineup again in Diaz, Chirinos and Marisnick with Bregman tossing one in late to boot. Wish they did not have to use Pressly, but glad James gets another pressure less inning to add to his confidence. Keep going guys!!
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These guys are just having fun! No one is pressing, and our pitchers are pitching with confidence. When pray tell, was the last time we had a catcher who hit homeruns?!!
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* Corbin Martin does have a curve ball. Fangraphs says he didn’t throw one on Sunday. Fangraphs gives him 0.2 WAR for his first outing.
*I don’t even recognize the Tyler White I’m seeing at the plate. He’s terrible.
* The pitch before the umpire yelled at Peacock was a strike that the umpire called a ball. Somebody said something to the ump and he didn’t like it. But, he missed the call.
* Our #5 beat the Tigers #1, 8-1 tonight. Boyd threw only like 10 pitches in the 1st inning and had 65 by the end of the third. The Astros wore him out.
* Jeff Luhnow was watching the Express in person in Round Rock tonight.
RR won 5-2. Tucker stole home on a double steal. Stubbs, Tanielu, and Mayfield homered and Stubbs also singled and then stole second and then stole third. Alvarez was 0-2 with two BBs. Cionel Perez pitched a decent 5 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 runs.
* Astros finish the night with the best record in MLB, 27-15.
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