Well, well, well. The Astros did the thing. Thanks Dan for giving me the space to gloat a bit and enjoy the ride!
Quiet for weeks. Rumors swirling. Everyone bracing for a deadline fizzle.
And then…BOOM!…Carlos Correa is back in Houston. Who had that on their bingo card a month ago?
Game on, baby. You can argue they’re not great moves, but you can’t fault them for pushing the buttons and trying to make the Astros better.
The Astros didn’t just fill holes. They reshaped the roster, and maybe the whole narrative of the American League for 2025. Correa returns not as a shortstop, but as a third baseman, replacing the injured Isaac Paredes, who’s likely out for the year.
Joining him:
- Jesús Sánchez, a left-handed bat with some pop, and
- Ramón Urías, a steady utility guy who brings versatility and swagger. He may become the new Marwin Gonzalez.
This is what Houston does every few years.
They wait. They calculate.
And when the time is right—they pounce. Except this isn’t exactly pounce. Maybe more appropriately, they swooped in and assaulted.
But somehow, it seems less panic and more precision. The rumors were wrong and most of us were too. Way off. Restraint? Ha!
Let’s not kid ourselves. This is about more than August and September.
This is about building a bridge to 2026. A reset. A reload. Dana Brown is sending the message: We aren’t going away!
And make no mistake—Manager Joe Espada’s got new toys, and he’s about to see how they all fit.
Tonight, against Boston, all eyes will be on Correa, and on former Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who’ll be in the other dugout. That’s drama you just can’t script.
But here’s the real question:
What happens when Jeremy Peña returns Friday?
When Yordan’s back?
When the puzzle pieces don’t all fit on the board?
Let the game of musical chairs begin. Watch the transaction wires today.
Somebody’s the odd man out. Maybe more than one. Now, and next year.
Let’s call it like it is:
- Correa’s playing third base. Period. (Umm… when healthy.)
- Sánchez has earned a shot. .814 OPS vs righties? You ride that bat in October.
- Urías gives you depth and insurance across the infield.
So what happens to Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, and Zach Dezenzo?
What about when Paredes is healthy again?
Jose Altuve still has a bat. So… where do you plug him in?
Do you flip Paredes (again) when he’s healthy?
Do you—gasp—shop Yordan this winter? He’s a star, but, admit it, he’s not aging well. And those knees!
Is someone like Christian Walker, who just signed a three-year deal, suddenly more valuable as a trade chip than an anchor?
And, oh by the way, unless you haven’t figured this out. No Framber Valdez in 2026. You’ll have to be happy with Hunter Brown, Spencer Arrighetti, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and whoever else Brown is able to wheel and deal for.
Here’s the set up for 2026-2028. The Astros have assembled a veteran leadership –if declining on the field – nucleus of Correa and Altuve to go along with a younger nucleus of Cam Smith, Paredes (hopefully), and Pena.
The Astros are too smart—and too ruthless—not to consider everything.
And that is what separates them from the pack. Trade deadline 2025 is a statement that will go down historically alongside Verlander, Greinke and Cole.
The Mariners made their move, too, and they’ll be a force down the stretch.
Suddenly, the AL West isn’t an afterthought. It’s the main stage.
Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor? That’s big-time firepower.
ESPN called them the big winners of the deadline… and they might be right.
Seattle didn’t even give up a top-10 prospect. That’s some fancy footwork from their GM.
But, remember:
- Seattle’s chasing Houston. Not the other way around.
- The Astros are used to October.
- The Mariners? They’re still trying to prove 2022 wasn’t a fluke.
Right now, it’s a three-team sprint in the AL West: Houston. Seattle. Texas.
Or is it?
Did Houston just wave its magic wand (again) and give the team the magic dust to push it into October?
They didn’t mortgage the future. They didn’t panic. They didn’t flinch.
They just reloaded. Again.
This is how dynasties stay dangerous. Who’d have ever thunk Houston could have a dynasty, but there’s no denying it and, it’s not going away.
So, welcome back, Carlos.
Welcome to the really Big Show Jesus and Ramon!
The stretch run just got spicy.
And if you’re paying attention… so did 2026.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
31 responses to “The Day After: Game On, Baby!”
Should we give Crane/Brown more credit for the Josh Hader signing? Closers were extremely expensive this deadline and a lot of teams are going to come to regret their purchases. Normally we’d spend prospects to shore up the bullpen and it would have been painful.
I’m not ready to slam the door on Framber just yet. We’re sailing right past the luxury tax threshold next year. We don’t know how much money the Astros generate and therefore can only speak to the draft and bonus pool penalties impacted by going over. Also, based on the Manfred interaction in Philly how confident should we be that there won’t be a strike/lockout/etc. in 2027? I hate the idea of giving Framber what other teams will say he is worth because it handcuffs what moves the team is able to make down the line and injury concerns should exist for any pitcher regardless of their history, but there may be other considerations at play for Crane/Brown when predicting what will happen between the MLBPA and owners.
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I promised glass half full Steve. I’ll try.
Correa has a .704 OPS. More concerning is worsening K/BB ratio. It could hint that this decline isn’t just “a bad year” or “bad luck in BABIP” but “can’t read or control the zone the way he once did.” Now, is he going to be pumped? I’m sure. He can get rid of that temp home and be back to his mansion in Houston permanently. He is coming back to a contender and a fanbase that is going to blow the roof off the first time they hear “now batting, no. 1, Carlos Correa.” But nostalgia is only going to get us so far. Maybe he posts a .760-.800 OPS for the rest of the year. Where is this heading for 2026? What does it mean for 2028? Is he this teams new second baseman going forward? Who knows. It’s not a problem for today I guess. Let’s hope for re-invigoration.
Urias is OK. I was (and am) happy with the pick up. I think we will start to see some of the frustrations Baltimore did leading them to trade him – at points. His K/BB ratio is not attractive. His batting averages over his career suggest slump prone. Maybe Baltimore was forced into a miscast role by playing him nearly everyday at 3B because of Westburg’s and others injuries. We won’t be forced into that, or at least it seems.
Sanchez is probably the most impactful of the three, if not just as a hitter in at least who he gets out of the lineup. Again, like Urias, not attractive K/BB ratios, just things that seem eh. Do you get frustrated by Yainer Diaz? Power bat, takes advantage of mistakes, but when your batting average is your OBP – your gonna feel those slumps the same way you feel Yainers. Not hitting is going to equal not seeing 1B either. If he spends 2 weeks in a slump and gets 2 hits in 2 weeks, he might see first base one additional time from a walk. But like Yainer, when he gets rolling, its going to feel good. Cooper Hummel is just not ever gonna get rolling unless we trip him and push him down a hill.
So yea, we are better. But at what cost? It seemed unlikely Framber was going to get a better than token offer at least, seems our pattern. Maybe Crane surprises us. The one thing about Correa is – we aren’t locked into 6 years of a bad contract. It’s only 3, and the offsetting money puts us around 20M a year not 30M a year. Maybe I’ll back off the ledge a little.
My point – we are better. How much better? IDK. I’m thinking the hole we put in our rotation for the next 2-3 weeks waiting on Arrighetti or Javier – 2 or 3 starts between now and then, maybe 4 starts through the rotation, being made by who knows who, could offset any offensive gains. Thats before we even consider Jason Alexander will also get 3 maybe 4 starts in that time…..
I’ll close with my disappointment in how the Astros have treated Shay Whitcomb. He got no real honest audition. He has a .918 OPS at AAA this year. He hit 19 HR in half a season of games there. He has consistently been good in the minors for a couple of years. There is just something Espada and Brown don’t like about him. I would argue that he would have been a better alternative at 3B than Urias or Correa. But we won’t find out. Maybe it’s something behind the scenes, maybe they think he doesn’t work hard enough in the cage, or his defense, or generally maybe he isn’t a good clubhouse guy. Who knows. Maybe this offseason he can move on to a franchise that hands him 3B for a few months and not play him once a week and think “this is all you got kid?”
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I’m with you on Whitcomb. If nothing else, he might have helped us at the deadline, unless of course nobody had any interest in him. He’ll go hit somewhere one day though.
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I saw an interesting statistic. The stats on teams who get hit by pitches. Seattle has been HBP the most in MLB. The Angels have been hit the second-most times and the Astros are #3. How is it that the top 3 teams in HBP are all in the AL West?
Meanwhile, the Athletics are #22 in HBP and the Rangers are #20.
What the Heck?
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What two players will have to be sent back to AAA? What will happen now for Melton? If the kid could play regularly, I think he could be a valuable player.
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Interestingly, no movement yet. Lineups and transactions are due four hours before game time and we’re inside that window. But wouldn’t it be three players since/if Pena is due back today?
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I forgot about Pena. I’m excited about his return. I think Hummel will probably be sent down.
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Shay Whitcomb & Jon Singleton were the guys sent to Sugar Land and Ryan Gusto was traded. Those were the 3 guys that got their roster spots filled by Correa, Sanchez & Urias.
If/when Pena comes back, I would think Matthews or Hummel goes down.
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Transactions starting to trickle in.
Pena activated. Zack Short DFAd.
Correa activated.
Sanchez activated.
Urias activated.
Nick Hernandez recalled from AAA.
Brice Matthews optioned.
Jacob Melton optioned.
Nick Robertson cleared waivers, outrighted to AAA.
Awaiting Joe Espada’s first lineup with his new toys.
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For what it’s worth…
Correa wearing #1.
Sanchez #4.
Urias #29.
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Tonight’s lineup.
Pena SS
Altuve DH
Sanchez LF
Correa 3B
Diaz C
Walker 1B
Trammel CF
Smith RF
Dubon 2B
Hunter is on the mound. Urias is the super sub I suppose.
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Here is the lineup:
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Chip thank you again for helping out with the blog – it helps to have another voice on here and it really takes the load off.
Like an old Grass Roots song this is certainly “Let’s live for today” territory. I don’t know how this infield works out next season with Paredes return but we will let that get sorted out some other time.
But I don’t think you can trade a guy who never came back from injury before the end of the season – they will not trade for him.
Maybe they let Dubon go and put Arias inas a cheaper super sub, but no idea if he can play the OF.
The Astros needed a 3B – check
They needed outfielder help – check
They needed another left handed bat – check
They potentially needed starting pitching help – reverse check as they sent Gusto packing
They could have used a right handed reliever added to the bullpen – no check
Not sure how it all works out but we will get a glimpse tonight.
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It will be interesting. Paredes has two years of arbitration remaining. It’s weird to think a guy as valuable as him would get traded by four different teams in the span of just over two years…but I don’t know where you fit him in if Alvarez returns healthy.
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And while the Astros made quite a few moves in the wake of the trades and Peña’s return – think about the Twins.
The Twins after their roster dumping on trade day are calling up EIGHT minor leaguer! Just wow!
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An issue not directly related to Houston’s trade activity… I noticed one team traded for a closer when they already had one, with the expectation that the newly acquired pitcher would now take on their 8th inning role. We’ve seen this movie before, in the persons of Pressly and Hader. And we know how that turned out – not good. There are a number of possible reasons it didn’t work. Among them a different mindset between closing out the 9th, and getting a hold in the 8th. All we have to go on is what we saw here. Should be interesting.
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wow that arm of Carlos looks really fantastic. I’ve missed that boom boom cannon. It’s electric!
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Nothing like bringing your closer in to pitch the bottom of the ninth in a tied game…
I shake my head each and every time…
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once again a wasted performance by Hunter. Our offense is down right offensive.
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Good morning. I’m pretty sure we’ll hit better with the acquisitions made late this week. It just did not happen last night. We got guys out of the line up that should not have been in the line up in the first place. That’s positive. And we typically don’t give 3 outs to the other team on the bases. But we really need a healthy Yordan Alvarez back. I still think he’ll show up at some point, but I’m not confident we’ll get the Yordan we need.
All year long I’ve been reading in Astro centric blogs, forums, X and mainstream media too, about the huge mistake the Astros made in signing Christian Walker for 60 million dollars over three years. That sentiment might end up being accurate. Although showing some real signs of life in July, his OPS+ sits at 89.
On Thursday, to much dancing in the streets we brought Carlos Correa home for the next three plus years at about 63 million dollars. His OPS+ sits at 90.
But the real issue with this club is pitching. We don’t have it. We might get it, but there is no guarantee. I’ve not yet seen one of our rehab guys pitch like they’re ready to keep us in a major league game. They’ve all gotten their pitch counts in, but have not impressed in any way. Spencer Arrighetti threw 79 pitches in Sugar Land on Thursday night, but walked 4 guys and gave up 5 hits and 6 runs in 4.2 innings. Joe Espada said last evening that Arrighetti will make his next start with the Astros. We don’t really have any other options. I’m glad we got our lefty bat, but did we have to give up Ryan Gusto?
Same thing with the pen Sarge. Once we’ve gotten past Abreu and Hader, we don’t really much of a sure thing. Souza gave us some big quasi closer performances earlier, but that should not be our expectation of him. To me, we don’t have another legit 9th or 10th inning guy in the pen to keep a tie game tied. So do we save Hader for a 10th inning that might not happen, or do we try to extend the game and hope our bats put something together in the first Manfred inning? Joe Espada takes a lot of grief when the Astros lose a game, but I would do the same thing in this situation.
We could have gotten a solid pen arm or a Charlie Morton to help out in the rotation for relatively reasonable terms. We did not. I think that decision will remain our bugaboo going forward.
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Dave, I agree pitching could become an Achilles heel. I mentioned a few weeks ago that all these guys coming back (Arrighetti included) are basically in spring training and will need a few starts at the MLB level to crank back up.
Indeed, Gusto was a big loss. I was also in on Morton. He is pitching better right now and would have provided some stability while the other guys ramped up.
Correa, Sanchez and probably Urias will provide some stability for Joe, which will be good down the stretch. No more Dollar-a-Day lineups and the team is stronger defensively for the most part.
I like that they “went for it” but missed on a couple of things, in my opinion.
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The Astros need to rip off a 8 – 10 game win streak soon.
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Sarge, I’m thinking that if they win enough games to hold on to first, or even stay within a game or two of the top until September 1, that’s our best chance to have a big month. Hopefully all our rusty pitchers will be effective at that point. And hopefully, all of our wounded guys will be back and contributing. Maybe that’s when we reel off 8-10 in a row.
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As for pitching, there are a few guys out there for the taking.
The Astros could take a flyer on Marcus Stroman since he was releaesed by the Yankees. Or, even more likely, a reunion with Ryan Pressly since he was released by the Cubs. Either would come at the league minimum.
And a lesser known name — Brooks Kriske — today was DFAd. He had a 15 k rate per 9 IP in AAA this year before the Cubs called him up briefly. He’s a journeyman to be sure, but another pitcher who may get a shot somewhere with those numbers.
These guys — and probably some others — won’t cost you much for a test drive.
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Another new lineup for Saturday.
Altuve 2B
Sanchez LF
Correa SS
Walker 1B
Diaz DH
Caratini C
Smith RF
Trammell CF
Urias 3B
Pena out after pulling himself out of the lineup with hamstring cramps on Friday night.
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I knew we would not be seeing Pena today.
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Pena…. just wow….
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When does the Calvary arrive or should we circle the wagons?
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Tony Perezchica does NOT belong in the third base coaches box. He has made many ill conceived decisions, this season, but I have not seen any as bad as the one today by sending Walker from second base on a ground ball hit to medium left field. UGH!!
I am also of the belief that Espada does not know how to handle a pitching staff.
Also, why is Neris still on the team??? How bizarre was that play where he purposely executed a balk to move the Boston baserunner from second to third. I understand his concern about the baserunner indicating where the catcher is setting up but a wild pitch or passed ball scores the run.
Suddenly, for the past three weeks, the team has driven into the ditch.
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Good morning. Sarge, I agree, Tony P. might be helpful in other areas, at least that’s what his PR page seems to say, but he’s made far too many mistakes directing traffic over at third. Heck, we could see there was no way Christian Walker was scoring even from our TV sets. You just can’t make that kind of mistake when your team needs a big inning, not a single run. Unfortunately, change in the third base box won’t happen until 2026, if at all.
As far as the pitching goes, Joe has 2 starters to work with presently and 2 almost bulletproof guys in the pen to rely on along with a couple of mostly reliable guys. The problem is that Joe Espada does not have a pitching staff. He’s got about half of what he needs. I don’t think the Pope could handle that staff, even with divine intervention.
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since the All Star break they are 6 and 9 (.400). That won’t ever win an honorable mention. Good pitching wins games. Good hitting not as much. I understand why we went the way we did but I’m not real optimistic at this time.
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