Astros: Which area brings you the most concern?

In my mind, a baseball team is split into three areas – starting pitching, relief pitching, and offense. One could break this down into sub-areas like left-handed and right-handed pitching, infield and outfield, etc.

But for the purposes of this post, we will stick with Dan P’s three areas, concerns, and positives about each for the 2026 Astros.

Starting Pitching

Concerns

• Even though he was a disappointment down the stretch, the biggest concern is not having Framber Valdez, who has averaged 14 wins and 191 innings per season over the last 4 years.
• Dependency on Tatsuya Imai as an MLB rookie to fill the top of the rotation.
• Dependency on Mike Burrows, who only has 99 career MLB innings to fill a spot in the rotation.
• Dependency on Lance McCullers Jr. and Cristian Javier to improve the shaky pitching they showed in 2025 after returning from injury.
• Dependency on Spencer Arrighetti, who missed most of 2025 with injury and did not pitch well when he was available.

Positives

• Hunter Brown is a top 5 pitcher in the American League and appears ready to repeat that based on his Spring Training performance.
• Imai had an excellent season in Japan in 2025 in a league that has translated well to the MLB previously. He has shown well so far in Florida.
• Burrows was chosen specifically because the team thought they could enhance certain traits. He has also been excellent in Spring Training.
• Both McCullers and Javier will be coming off a healthy off-season and are farther removed from surgery rehab.
• If someone fails along the way, A.J. Blubaugh and Ryan Weiss both look like they could pick up the slack.
• Both Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski could return by around mid-season and if needed could be other options for the rotation.

Relief Pitching

• Biggest concern is that the team has confirmed that elite closer Josh Hader will start the season on the IL. This is a larger than normal concern since he has not fully come back from the problems he had at the end of the last season while suffering a setback in the off-season.
• A concern that Bryan Abreu will perform like he did at the end of 2025 when he attempted to fill-in as the closer.
• The team is relying on several cheap pickups from last season for high leverage innings such as Bryan King, Steven Okert, Enyel De Los Santos, and Bennett Sousa. The concern is that one or more of them will take a header this year (ala Tayler Scott or Rafael Montero) and turn back into a pumpkin.
• The bullpen may rely on pitchers who had poor 2025’s – like Kai-Wei Teng (6.37 ERA) or someone like Peter Lambert who flared out in the majors in 2024, then did so-so in Japan in 2025.
• The bullpen may get abused due to a potential 6-man rotation and have to rely on multi-inning outings from pitchers who are not that experienced.

Positives

• Perhaps giving Hader time off early in the season (4 wks?/6 wks?) may result in a more rested Hader down the stretch
• Abreu could do a much better job knowing that he will start the season as the closer rather than having it thrust upon him
• No team in the majors has done a better job of turning Lemon Pledge into lemons (high quality ones, not bad, used car lemons) than the Astros pitching coaches. Someone or ones may grab hold of jobs including Lambert and Teng
• The Astros have some quality folks that will make the team as long relief options, possibly both Blubaugh and Weiss

Offense

Concerns

• The outfield is really iffy, if Jake Meyers is your one sure thing and he was a prime candidate to get traded.
• There is the possibility of infielders getting their noses out of joint due to five starter quality infielders sharing four spots.
• Your best bat is Yordan Alvarez, who has had injury problems including 2025 when he only played in 48 games.
• Jose Altuve is not getting any younger.
• One of the Astros’ best left handed bats in 2025 (switch hitter Victor Caratini) is no longer around and being replaced by ????
• Cam Smith collapsed in 2025 after a good start – can the new hitting coaches avoid this type of death spiral in 2026?

Positives

• Your best bat is Yordan Alvarez, who is a premier hitter.
• You have real depth in the infield with Christian Walker, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena (when he returns), Carlos Correa and Isaac Paredes. When all are healthy you will have 4 solid bats and a good hitter on the bench (or at DH). When any of them are hurt, you have a good player taking their place.
• Cam Smith has come to Spring Training with a better looking swing.
• Somebody – Joey Loperfido, Zach Cole, Brice Matthews, or even Zach Dezenzo or Taylor Trammell will grab a spot or spots on the roster.
• Jake Meyers gives you a heckuva glove in CF (don’t ask about his arm).

In the end, the concerns will linger even with a good start to the season, or balloon with a poor one. But every team is a different animal, and the 2026 Astros will be unique and perhaps concerning in their own way.