The Astros will expand their roster on September 1 to 28 players from 26 with no more than 14 pitchers among the 28.
In the old days this used to be a free for all moment as the teams could expand up to the full 40-man roster for the last month of the season before contracting back down for the playoffs. This led to marathon games back when a reliever could come in to face one hitter and there was a slew of options in the bullpen. Why the league does not allow a few more on the roster now that relievers are required to face three hitter minimums is a question for the commissioner.
This season, the Astros certainly would love to have a bunch of arms in the bullpen for September as they attempt to navigate through the injuries (Josh Hader, Bennett Sousa) and the short starts of those returning from injury (Lance McCullers Jr., Cristian Javier).
Complicating the roster expansion, though in a good way, is incorporating the returns of injured players. Yordan Alvarez is the highlight there as he is expected to be activated for the Colorado series beginning Tuesday. Jake Meyers is expected to start a rehab this week, so he should come back in early September. Luis Garcia would seem to be within a rehab start or two of returning. J.P. France overran his 30-day rehab time, was reinstated to the roster and optioned to AAA (he still had options). Taylor Trammell will be out into September. They want Brandon Walter back, but he had a setback during rehab and is likely out for the duration. And that is not even talking about the almost forgotten injured like Zack Dezenzo, Brendan Rodgers and the one they would love to get back, Isaac Paredes.
Another consideration here is what happened in Sunday’s game at catcher. It was almost the doomsday situation as the Astros had used Victor Caratini off the bench to pinch hit in the eighth inning and then had starting catcher Yainer Diaz get crossed up with new reliever Craig Kimbrel and take a fast ball flush off his arm. With Cooper Hummel sent down, there is no hint of who the Astros’ emergency catcher is. Mauricio Dubon???? Would the Astros bring back up Cesar Salazar to be the third catcher during September? If Diaz does not recover from yesterday’s ding, he may be brought up as the second catcher.
So, what could a 28-man roster look like next Monday?
14 position players.
- C – (2) Diaz / Caratini
- DH – (1) Alvarez
- IF – (5) Christian Walker, Mauricio Dubon, Jeremy Pena, Carlos Correa, Ramon Urias
- OF – (5) Jose Altuve, Chas McCormick, Jacob Melton, Jesus Sanchez, Cam Smith
- Last Spot – (1) Brice Matthews – maybe. He is the likely one to get sent down when Yordan is activated. Will he then be reactivated when they expand to 28 and then taken off when Jake Meyers returns? Likely – though see my note on A.J. Blubaugh below.
14 Pitchers.
- Starters – (6) Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez, Jason Alexander, Lance McCullers Jr., Cristian Javier, Spencer Arrighetti
- Relievers – (6) Bryan Abreu, Bryan King, Craig Kimbrel, Steven Okert, Enyel de los Santos, Kaleb Ort
- And more – (2) John Rooney is presently on the 26 man, but that is tenuous. A.J. Blubaugh will definitely be brought back up when the roster expands. Luis Garcia should be given Rooney’s spot when he is activated.
Note – Blubaugh was sent down on August 23 and would normally have to stay down for 10 days unless he is replacing an injured player. But I am not sure if the roster expansion trumps that rule. It is only the difference between September 1 and 2.
That is my best look at what will happen in the next week with the Astros’ roster. What are your thoughts?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
24 responses to “Astros’ 2025: Expanding the roster”
At this time, I have much more confidence in Blubaugh on the staff than Lance. Lance scares me every time he’s out there. I don’t think he’s ready to be on the pitching staff. Maybe next year . Blubaugh is deserving to stay with the main club
LikeLike
First of all, I believe they should pick a starting pitcher to convert into a long reliever to follow other starting pitchers who only give the team five innings or less in a start. This would help save the bullpen by resting more of the one-inning guys who have pitched more innings already than they should have or are having to appear so many times in a short series against a team who could be exposed to them multiple times in a series.
LikeLike
They need to bring up Dusty Baker’s “backup catcher”, Cesar Salazar, to put on the bench as necessary insurance. This enables Caratini more ABs against RH pitchers and get the strikeout machine, Christian Walker, on the bench against any RHP with any breaking ball at all.
LikeLike
I think Blubaugh could be the right type of pitcher to fill that long reliever role – though unfortunately that is built on a very small sample size. But the Astros are close to desperate at this point.
Since the first of July, Walker has played in 43 games with a .280 BA/ .346 OBP/ .840 OPS / 9 HRs/ 35 RBIs with a too high 27% strikeout rate.
Walker actually is hitting better against rightys this year .240 BA/ .306 OBP/ .746 OPS vs. .223 BA/ .286 OBP/.626 OPS against leftys with similar K rates
Caratini has better numbers with less power against rights and he does strikeout less.
It will be interesting to see how they use this extra spot
LikeLike
Some additional thoughts:
LikeLike
Yea its the biggest shuffling I remember seeing by this roster. Transactions are happening daily, some of it from injury some from ineffectiveness. This is a crazy way to treat the last 4-5 slots on the roster.
We got lucky with some of the waiver pickups / minor league free agent contracts. Okert gave us some good innings. Sousa become a leverage guy for a short time. Ort has struggled some this year but has been a trusted piece for a year. Tay Scott gave us a really effective 3/4 of a year. Bryan King was effective before he wasn’t. Of course Walter and Alexander have made big starts this year and we wouldn’t be where we are without them. But some of that “reason they were gotten so cheaply” is starting to show through.
One thing I was surprised about was Dubin being waived. Unlike some of the others, he was an Astros investment. Been in the organization for a long time. Just wish he had found some consistency over his career. You see it in individual games where he throws a three up three down inning, and in the second inning of the same game all of a sudden loses the zone, tries to compensate by throwing it in the heart of the plate, and just doesn’t have quite the stuff to get heart of the zone strikes by enough hitters.
Baseball is so micro. The difference between a Dubin fastball going 96 in the zone and a Brown fastball going 96 in the zone is probably only 200 RPMs in rotation and an eighth of an inch drop, yet it feels like two completely different pitches in result. Maybe we see him again. Maybe not.
LikeLike
Really great points Steven. When these guys come out of nowhere – very rarely are they a Brad Peacock, who becomes a real weapon for multiple years after finally breaking through in their late 20’s or 30’s. These guys eventually get found out or get injured.
I was surprised to see Dubin released also. He looked like he was finding himself earlier this year. Don’t know if he was found out also or after his injury he changed something.
I look at all those moves in one week and shake my head. One of the things driving that was having these truncated starts by some of the pitchers – they end up bringing up folks to hide the fact that they don’t have enough base relievers.
LikeLike
Let us hope, by season end, both returning wounded warriors on the P and hitting sides find their groove. Obviously it is going to take time for both to settle in, if at all. I have no doubt the Astros will make the playoffs but I do wonder how effective they will be hitting and P, regardless of who is on the roster.
LikeLike
I was a bit surprised about Dubin too. I thought he threw better than his stats indicated on Saturday. He got dinked around a bit and then gave up the shot out to left. I would have liked him to get at least another outing. But we needed Mr. Rooney on Sunday.
I’m presuming Blubaugh will be back on the 1st when rosters expand..a bit. And if he can get outs, he’ll probably stick around, because as a pitcher, I think he’d have to wait 15 days to come back unless another pitcher got injured.
Thing is, it’s impossible to even guess who will be on the pitching staff from day to day, as illustrated by the transaction report. Garcia? France? Does Rooney go down?
And with Sousa and Hader, I’d be pretty surprised if either guy showed up at any point.
Off the subject a bit, Cam is not helping right now. Nor is Jacob Melton. I’d use Chas against lefties when Sanchez sits and I’d put Dubon out there in place of Melton. Likely they’ll both hit a bit more, both play sold defense and both have played in September.
LikeLike
Speaking of Dubin
Orioles Claim Shawn Dubin, Designate Matt Bowman For Assignment – MLB Trade Rumors
LikeLike
Blubaugh comes back, as Mr. Rooney goes on the IR with elbow inflammation.
LikeLike
Yordan Alvarez returns from injured list after hand fracture
LikeLike
Very surprised he is playing left field.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, but in even bigger news than Yordan, my church choir will be singing the National Anthem at this Friday night’s Space Cowboys game.
Back in 1999 – the last season of the Astrodome we sang at an Astros game – Xavier Hernandez’s wife sang in our choir and got us in there. All I remember is that when we walked out on the field – it seemed so huge …. and empty. I think we sing in front of more people at church than we did at that game with the late arriving week night “crowd”.
Well, should be fun – may be Jake Meyers will be rehabbing there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tonight
Pena SS
Correa 3B
Altuve DH
Yordan LF
Walker 1B
Sanchez RF
Caratini C
Dubon 2B
Melton CF
And Hunter on the mound. The lineup is deepening a lot….
LikeLike
But the results seem to be the same as of the 8th with the guys down 6-1.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good morning. It’s tough to win for a decade. Somehow the Astros have remained relevant. Sometimes I don’t know how. I got my first wisp of bad vibes last night when Jose lined out to left center with the bases loaded to end the second inning. And then the rare act of making two errors on a single play by Jeremy when he had a pretty simple force play that was certainly was not going to be double play ball. He simply botched it. But he sure looked lackadaisical while doing it. And although Hunter did not show it so demonstrably as our friend Framber would, that single play took him totally out of his rhythm. And that was basically it, because there no was coming from behind last night against what should have been a gettable opponent. That’s Astro baseball. But thanks to the Seattle Mariners, we’re still in first place. And Framber is going to throw a gem tonight. I’m sucked in!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Last night is a microcosm of baseball. You’re facing a pitcher that with an 11 ERA on the road in your stadium. You have your best pitcher on the mound. Your big gun is back in your lineup. The final line is 6-1. Wait, what? They had 6, we scored 1 you say? I need to double check this.
It’s a funny game.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thoughts –
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a good thing San Diego came through for us. Sure would be nice to beat some of the bad teams and not have to watch the scoreboard though.
LikeLike
So John Rooney made his MLB debut and immediately had elbow inflammation and a trip to the IL. Maybe this is contagious.
And it looks like they have for the moment avoided having to DFA Brandan Rodgers
2B Brendan Rodgers
Injury: Concussion/nasal fracture
IL date: June 18 (transferred to 60-day IL on July 20)
Expected return: TBD
Status: Was returned from his Minor League rehab due to lumbar spine inflammation. (updated Aug. 26)
LikeLike
Yanier goes to the 10 day. It keeps getting tougher.
LikeLike
That information I provided might be incorrect. Presently, Yanier will rest his wrist for the next couple of days.
LikeLike
And Caratini is apparently out due to concussion protocol.
LikeLike