After being a fan of the Astros for the last 60 seasons, this one feels a little different to me.
Usually, springtime comes with a little joy and a lot of hope. But this season is tinged with melancholy due to the elephant in the dugout.
Unless a miracle occurs, there will be no Major League Baseball season this time next year. And reading the tea leaves, there might not be any baseball at all in 2027.
Baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire at the end of 2026. All parties know this.
But will they start talking about the next agreement now? No. Will they start talking about it after the season ends? Not likely.
And what will be separating the two sides? Well, there are always minor disagreements that could be addressed and run to ground. But the big one – the “Iran is going to unconditionally surrender” equivalent is the one looming over negotiations. Salary Cap.
Both the NBA and the NFL have salary caps, but baseball never does.
Well, in truth, the way the owners ran things for decades, from the very start until free agency appeared in the 1970’s, was a type of salary cap. It was a take-it-or-leave-it salary cap.
These days, getting players to agree to a salary cap is like trying to get the genie to go back into his bottle.
This can be summarized as the owners saying, “Players, please save us from ourselves.”
Another way to look at this is that the millionaires (players) need to find a middle ground with the billionaires (owners) to figure out how to extort even more money from the thousandaires (us).
Can they find that middle ground before the agreement runs out? There is a chance, but as I read in an ESPN article on the subject, it is the same chance that Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) had with Mary Swanson (Lauren Holley) in Dumb and Dumber. Google It.
What will really happen? Well sometime, perhaps on December 1 2026 when the Agreement expires, the owners will lockout the players. They will all hem and haw until the end of March, when the teams and the players will start missing games. Then it is a matter of who is hurt the worst, who wants it worse, etc.
The wild card here may be that the players are no longer represented by the longtime head of the union, Tony Clark. Bruce Meyer is the interim head of the union, and he had been the lead on previous negotiations of the agreement in 2020 and 2022. Would it make sense to replace him between now and the expiration of the current agreement? It sure would not make much sense to throw someone into this who has not been involved to date.
The bottom line is that we know the 2026 season will start this week and that we don’t know when or even if the 2027 season will follow suit.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
12 responses to “The last season for a while?”
Christian Vazquez is the backup catcher. Cesar Salazar will not make the team, likely released.
Astros released Peter Lambert, no surprise.
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Astros To Select Christian Vázquez – MLB Trade Rumors as Chip said
Astros’ Peter Lambert Granted His Release – MLB Trade Rumors as Chip also said
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MLB is a club. Just 30 owners, just 780 players invited into the club at any given time. The worst of those best players, make 780K minimum. A starter that can provide 125 innings a season and a 5.00 ERA will make 5 million of his own. There are a whole lot of people that can afford to go to MLB games, and it’s not their fault that so many other regular folks simply can’t afford to go to games. MLB goes after the real money. They want Tucker contracts. They want Soto contracts. Ohtani. But until they don’t. As far as the players go, if it works, no need to fix it.
I really do not care.
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Athletic update: They have decided the Astros have a 32.9 % chance of making the post season in 2026.
By the way, the Mariners are tied for 2nd in their power rankings to open the season, the Astros are 16th.
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My childhood – 15 bucks a ticket to get in the Astrodome (honestly we were always finding the promotions like bring some tin cans so it probably wasn’t even 15), parking was 5 (my dad refused to pay 10 for the closer parking). All so I could go “Cruuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzz” 3 or 4 times a night. Today, 15 bucks is the cost of the little helmet full of ice cream. I abandoned the idea of going to games more than ever so occasionally, watching them at home is a better experience anyway. Blummer is sitting right next to me at home, he has yet to come down out of the booth and call a game for me in seat 14 of row 3. But I expect this fight will end up bleeding into my $89 a year MLB package as well, which was $87 last year, $85 the year before, well you get it. These sides remind me of politicians straight up though – in today’s environment its a zero sum game, you get all you want or you lost.
I left the NFL years ago when you needed cable and/or 5 streaming services to make sure you got all the Texans games. I can leave MLB too.
I’ve been out of town a few days so I’ll give a few notes –
I would have rather the Astros kept Salazar and offered Vazquez the chance to go to AAA and split time with Perez. I don’t know if Vazquez would have taken it or retired, he probably doesn’t need to go play at AAA for 90k at this point, but maybe, and you would have both. I know folks in other places are speculating that the Astros may be able to keep Salazar but I don’t know. It seems they are fine with Price/Perez at AAA and Janek at AA. Janek needs a partner, but I expect that to be Bush because the Astros are going to want something like a 65/35 split for Janek, not a 50/50. Neither Salazar or Vazquez can hit water falling out of a boat, so I guess it doesn’t really matter which is the back up. I just liked the fact that Salazar would see a few pitches at least before going back to the dugout and has drawn walks at a decent rate in his professional career.
Pena sure looks like he doesn’t need IL time. Part of me wonders if he will open on the 10 day just so the Astros can kick the can down the road 10-12 more days before they start having to sit Paredes some.
Arrighetti was a little surprising, but Dana’s comments on it make sense. You aren’t going to / can’t option McCullers or Javier, if that day off next week lets Imai get his normal routine/rest in pitching out of the 4 spot, you don’t need 6 until mid April. So keep Arrighetti stretched out in a starters routine. If he pitches poorly in his two starts down there they have the option of falling back on Weiss.
Walker has been scuffling. Less concerned about the .139, that happens to every major leaguer at some point in a season, more concerned about the 3/10 BB/K ratio and the 27% strikeout rate. Same not for Jose, because the ratios and K rate are even worse. Both of them have mid 7 OPPQ – the average quality of pitcher they faced this ST spent most of their time at AA last year.
I’m concerned. It’s time for a W/L projection and a prediction. I’m hoping for the playoffs, I will be screaming at every pitch Weiss throws 3 feet outside, but my gut tells me this team wins about 85 and misses the playoffs.
I’ll go this – Seattle 91 wins, Houston 85, Oakla, er, the A’s 82, Texas 80, LA 65.
If we think we are tied to health, Texas has a pitching staff that can win 90 or 70 based solely on the health of 4 individuals.
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We watched a lot of the winter Olympics last month. In part because of the nausea inducing coverage by NBC I’ve found myself not cheering for the USA teams and athletes in many cases. It’s worse in the summer games. When it comes to baseball I do have my favorite players, but I’m still largely rooting for the laundry. A strike is going to cost MLB a lot of fans. It’s a shame people involved don’t remember 1994 as painfully as they should.
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I can’t do the link on my phone but the 26 man roster is up on the Astros mlb site including Pena, Matthews and Roa
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Roster is out. No surprises. Pena is NOT on the IL, so maybe that one small one. Matthews will break camp with the big league club. De Los Santos and Pearson to the IL, and the Astros get to kick those cans a few weeks down the road.
Now its the lineup tomorrow. Is it Loperfido in LF or Yordan in LF? I know we shouldn’t put so much stock in ONE game, its just one, but it might be an indicator of what is in Joes mind.
I guess my only surprise is Blanco and Wiesneski were not moved to the 60 day IL, at least yet. The only name that went to the 60 day was Walter. Maybe they don’t need to free up space on the 40 man right now.
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Here is the link for anyone wanting to read about the 40 man roster
Astros’ 2026 Opening Day roster
Steven – you are right about the Blanco/Wisniewski staying on the 15 day and taking up a roster space. If they moved one to the 60 day – they could have kept Salazar on the 40 man and not released him.
So, are they thinking that they will only move them when they absolutely need a spot – maybe they pick someone up who is not making another team’s roster?
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Salazar was out of options. They had no choice.
Now if he clears waivers he could report to AAA and be added back on the 40 man (if he accepts the assignment), but the first time he is up he can’t be sent back down. Frankly, if you are able to keep him, which requires he clears waivers, accepts the assignment, there is no reason to add him to the 40 man unless you have to call him up.
No, I feel pretty confident we’ve seen the last of Salazar. But I also thought we had seen the last of Jon Singleton after that DFA, and he somehow, ever so briefly, snuck back into lives.
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Adding anyone to the 60 day injured list would mean they couldn’t play for us until the last week of May at the earliest. Neither Blanco nor Wesneski would be available then, so the decision not to put them on the 60 day seems odd. Perhaps it’s reported wrong?
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I’m thinking Yordan in left and Isaac at DH. On Opening Day it would be a crime to have Paredes the bench. But I’m still thinking 50 outfield starts max for Yordan.
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