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Astros 2025: Best of luck Ryan Pressly

I’ll always hold a soft spot for Ryan Pressly in my heart for two reasons.

First, shortly after the 2022 Championship, Pressly came to a new restaurant (BB Italias) across the street from our condo and had a very nice meet-and-greet. I need to credit my wife for getting me to go. I have some Asperger’s tendencies when it comes to meeting people, and she pushed me into it. Pressly was as nice as could be and represented what I wanted to see in an Astros player in public.

Second, I go waaaaay back with the Astros and I think I can truthfully say that Ryan Pressly was the best Astro reliever in the playoffs that I can recall.

  • Pressly – 47 games – 3-1 record – 14 saves  2.78 ERA and included a 0.00 ERA in 12 games on the way to the 2022 WS.
  • Dave Smith – 7 games – 1-1 – 0 saves – 5.40 ERA (and included a blown save against the 1980 Phillies and a huge 1986 meltdown against the Mets)
  • Billy Wagner – 5 games – 1-0 – 0 saves – 9.66 ERA
  • Brad Lidge – 17 games – 1-3 – 6 saves – 2.74 ERA (and a Pujols blast that is still circling the globe and kept Roy Oswalt from opening the 2005 WS)
  • Chad Qualls – 15 games – 1-1 – 0 saves – 4.71 ERA
  • Ken Giles – 7 games – 0-2 – 2 saves – 11.74 ERA (and enough meltdowns that the Astros went to tandem pitching in the 2017 WS)
  • Roberto Osuna – 13 games – 1-0 – 3 saves – 5.06 ERA

The only other one in his area code was Lidge, but Pressly’s flawless 2022 run raises him to another level.

Pressly, while not a soft tosser, did not have the blazing fastball of a Lidge or a Wagner. But he did have very good control over all his pitches and especially his breaking pitches. When he was totally on – he would put the fastball on the very edge of the zone to start off a batter and place those breaking pitches where they looked like a strike and then would disappear on the hitters.

The Astros are making this move to free up some budget space and because Pressly looked a lot more hittable in 2024.

Ultimately, we can only wish him and his family good luck.  He gave the Astros a solid set-up man who became a clutch closer for the club. And what else could we ask?

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19 responses to “Astros 2025: Best of luck Ryan Pressly”

  1. While I was one who wanted Pressley gone, I wish him well in his endeavors with the Cubbies. He was a part of our winning ways over the years. Wasn’t it MacArthur who said “Old closer’s don’t fade away, they either get traded or retire”. He was good for us until he wasn’t or to be mean, you were good until you weren’t or you’ve outlived you usefulness. Lots of sarcasm there.

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  2. Pressly has always been a professional. He celebrates big outs but does not rub it in the batters face. When he fails, we see that blank stare, looking up a bit at times, maybe towards heaven. We know he’s pitched at less than 100%. He just battles. I hope his trade has nothing to do with Alex Bregman. If anything, I hope he helps bring us outfield help. Losing a guy for what we need now is easier. I think he’s far from done. I’m sure he’s been tweaking his offerings over the winter to make up for some of that velocity loss. He’ll keep battling. I wish him good fortune.

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  4. I have one of those weird feelings about this.

    On one hand, I know he isn’t completely the same pitcher that was dominating hitters when he first got here and took over the closers role behind Osuna. Statistically at his best he was never a Brad Lidge or Billy Wagner at their best, but his playoff resume speaks for itself. He got big outs while he was here. But he has that downward slope in K/9, hard hit %s, swing and miss rates, he isn’t quite the same guy at 35 he was at 31. That happens.

    On the other hand, I’m a fan. As a fan of Ryan Pressly, I hate that it went this way, that first he was replaced, forced to pitch the 8th inning for an entire year, and then traded in the offseason because of money. I’m a fan of the guy, even if he frustrated me at times the last 2 seasons. I’m gonna hate if I hear some Cash playing in Wrigley Field while the Astros have a top of the 9th to deal with. For some reason, this one seems more surreal than watching Correa, Springer, Cole or anyone else we have lost over the years with another jersey on.

    All this Bregman stuff, its a daily circus for the media. Now they are adding Polanco to the circus. My take on Polanco – the Astros have moved into having enough guys on the roster and in the lineup with below league average OBPs. Walker and Paredes, for their power, both sit right around league average for their careers. Pena is way below league average. Good Chas would be above league average, but bad Chas is a blackhole of OBP. For all that Yainer brings, OBP is not one of them. For all the hate for Singleton, the one thing he does is put distance between his OBP and batting average, its just the problem is his batting average. Meyers is kind of, too a lesser degree, the same.

    The Astros need a left fielder that gets on base. Don’t need a lot of pop, don’t need to steal a ton of bases, just have a OBP north of .340. Where is our Steven Kwan?

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    • I hate that Pressly is gone over salary because Crane signed Abreu, Montero, and Hader to big contracts no one else was going to pay. Going on other sites and reading people’s opinions on Pressly is kind of sad. To be honest it makes me angry at how many unappreciative people we have in the fanbase. The guy was great for us. He was better than Billy Wagner because he delivered when it counted. He didn’t allow an inherited runner to score in the postseason since 2020. I still maintain if he’d taken a mph or two off his fastball in 2024 his stats would have looked much better…and they weren’t bad. People are complaining about how maddening he is taking every hitter to a 3-1 count and then hoping they didn’t crush his next offering, but for the season he saw 244 hitters and only 49 of them went to 3 ball counts with 18 walking in 59 games. Bryan Abreu saw 325 and went to 3 balls 60 times with 32 resulting in walks in 78 games. Josh Hader saw 328 with 60 reaching 3 balls and 25 of them walking across 71 games. There’s not much difference there. Ultimately the fact Abreu and Hader appeared in so many more games than Pressly was the reason to move him. The problem is we got rid of salary, but who is going to make the appearances?

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    • I’m a Dezenzo skeptic. 3 BB and 22 Ks is a ratio that is not surprising as a cup of coffee given his minor league ratios. Even if he hits .270, which seems very much in the realm of possibility given that he has demonstrated good bat to ball in the minors, he wll be below league average in OBP.

      The Astros had a .322 OBP last year. The league had a .312. So while I gripe about the Astros dead innings last year, pitching has the upper hand across the league. As annoying as the propensity of the 2024 Astros to shut it down and have multiple, consecutive 3 up 3 downs, Mariners fans were ready to just replace their entire lineup with the Tacoma squad just to see different players stink. It’s a league issue.

      My issue is not the leagues problems, it’s Houstons. We had a .322 because of Altuve, Tucker and Yordan. Tucker and his .408 are gone. Yainer is right around that team average, Caratini had a likely not repeatable .336 that helped prop it up. Paredes and Walker will be a little above it, probably in the .330s, but we lost a guy with a .408, I don’t know that Altuve duplicates .350, the offense will generate at times because of the power. We could have 7 guys in the double digits on dingers. We have 4 guys that are on the betting side of 20+.

      There’s going to be fireworks. On days that Yordan sits there could also be days we can’t force pitches and the offense looks inept when it’s unable to generate against good pitching. This looks like an offense that will win some 8-3 games following those up with 2-1 losses. I could see us winning 4 out of 6 in 2 series only to go to Seattle and get shut down and lose 2 out of 3 games while scoring 4 or 5 runs in those 3 games.

      My concern is the consistency of this offense.

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      • I posted elsewhere about the seasons that Judge and Ohtani had in 2024. Specifically, I tried to point out that Ohtani had 2 RBI or more in only 16 games the Dodgers won by 4 runs or less. The numbers were pretty similar for Judge, but I don’t recall what they were. Now, that’s cherry picking some data for sure, but when we’re talking about who is most valuable as opposed to most spectacular I want to know how are we winning the close games. There is something to be said for padding leads and not letting opponents get back into contests, but at the end of the year a lot of the eye popping stats come in blowouts. Players getting on base is still the most valuable thing they can do night in and night out. I share your concern 100% that our organization has not done enough to maintain that advantage.

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  5. Yes, he had ups and downs; mostly ups.  We will miss him.  An ode to Ryan Pressly:

    If he keeps on pitching, bats are going to break

    If he keeps on pitching, bats are going to break

    When Pressly throws strikes, try to put the ball in play

    Stone cold Pressly taught ‘em to weep and moan, oh

    Stone cold Pressly taught ‘em to weep and moan

    He got what it takes to make them chase outside of the zone

    Oh well, oh well, oh well, ooh

    Oh, don’t it make you feel bad

    When you’re trying to get a barrel

    You don’t know which way he’ll throw

    If he’s throwing down south, that’s when you get screwed

    When you’re playing against Chicago

    Ah, ah, ah, hey

    Grinding won’t help you, wailing won’t do you no good

    No, grinding won’t help you, wailing won’t do you no good

    When Pressly throws strikes, brother you’re gonna lose, ooh

    All last night sat on his fastball mid-zone

    All last night, sat on his fastball mid-zone

    Thinking how you whiffed late when you swung too slow, oh-ho

    Ah, ah, ah, ah-ah

    Ah, ah, ahh, ah-ah, oh, oh

    Going

    He’s going to Chicago

    You play futbol for Jeff Luhnow

    Sorry they’ll overtax you, ah

    Going down, going down now

    Going down, I’m going down now

    Going down, going down

    Going down, going down

    Oh

    Going down, going down now

    Going down, going down now

    Going down, going down now

    Going down, going, dow-dow-dow-dow-down now

    Ooh, ooh

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  6. Well, based on some of today’s news, Pressly asked to go. He wants to close. He sucked up the Hader acquisition last year and his demotion as the true professional he is, but apparently, it was a tough year, including his relationship with Dana Brown. Unfortunately, Dana was an innocent bystander, at least as far as I’m concerned.

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  9. Just a curiosity question.

    In 2026 we have 36.5MM coming off the books (Abreu, Pressly, Montero). Do you think that we might be interested in trying to get Kyle Tucker back since he’ll be a free agent? Of course Valdez will be a free agent so there’s that to consider.

    In reading about Pressly, I do understand one point that has probably already been noted. When Hader was signed I imagine it was a significant blow to his ego regardless of how he was pitching. I know we all wonder who’s pulling the strings on some of these trades and contracts but the signing of Hader for 5/90MM wasn’t the smartest move in the world IMO.

    Maybe someone will write a book someday letting us know just what was going on at the Owner, GM, 3 amigos level.

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    • Z, that’s why I’m hoping Bregman does not come back. We’ll have further payroll flexibility if that remains the case. And hopefully we’ll have kids like Smith and Matthews in the mix too. I’m not skipping 2025, but fiscal restraint now could lead to a bullish 2026 and beyond.

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    • I do think the Astros will engage Tucker’s representatives if he has not signed an extension prior to the free agent bargaining period opening. He is not a Boras client. He’s smart to look out for himself and test the waters given what we saw last offseason and the fact that even if he hasn’t made Bregman money (yet), he has still made a ridiculous amount. However, he was well liked in the clubhouse. They may not actually make him an offer if the budget and years expected are not in line with Brown/Crane’s plans, but MLB lists next year’s prospective OF free agents as Tucker, Schwarber, Bellinger, Luis Robert, Tyler O’Neill, Cedric Mullins, Michael Conforto, Yastrzemski, Chris Taylor, Starling Marte, Trent Grisham, Andrew McCutchen, Mitch Haniger, Hunter Renfroe, Max Kepler, Lane Thomas, Willi Castro, Jesse Winker, Austin Hays, Austin Slater, Mike Tauchman, and Dylan Carlson. I think a few of those guys will retire and I’m not sure they didn’t make a few of those names up. Tucker is a know quantity to them.

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      • Funny that Tauchmann is in that list. He is a guy I talked about last offseason. All he did was post a .357 OBP last year while making just 1.95M. And rumors swirled around the guy all last offseason. He probably could have been gotten in the Tucker deal this offseason. You don’t need 600 PAs from him, get 400 PAs at that OBP, let him hit 5-10 HR, play sound D, and sit him against lefties. But alas, by the time he gets to FA he will be 35 and probably not the guy we should be looking for. But man, he could have been a big help in 2024 and 2025 at a total cost of 4M. These are the kinds of moves I just don’t see in Brown’s toolbox, find that guy that is cheap and does something really well, use that thing he does really well, and don’t overexpose him, and get it done cheaply.

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    • There is absolutely no reason to have Jake penciled in to start in center unless there is a lefty on the mound. At this point, the Astro outfield is wide open. There are multiple jobs to win, as is should be with the present group of options.

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