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Astros, Omar Narvaez Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | June 26, 2024 at 1:00pm CDT

The Astros have agreed to a minor league deal with catcher Omar Narvaez, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. The ISE client was recently released by the Mets midway through the second season of a two-year, $15MM contract. New York remains on the hook for the rest of this season’s $8MM salary. Houston would only owe Narvaez the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster (which would be subtracted from the Mets’ obligations).

Narvaez was a quality regular with the White Sox, Mariners and Brewers for the bulk of the time from 2018-22 and even grabbed an All-Star nod with the ’21 Brewers. Over that five-year span, the now-32-year-old backstop slashed .254/.337/.397. His defensive grades were poor in Chicago and Seattle, but the Brewers have a knack for maximizing catcher defense (framing in particular) and helped the veteran catcher overhaul his skills behind the dish. Statcast pegged him at 19 runs above average behind the plate during his time in Milwaukee.

Unfortunately for Narvaez, his time with the Mets was a flop. He hit .211/.283/.297 during his first season, making it an easy call to exercise what was an $8MM player option for the 2024 campaign. This year has been even worse, as Narvaez batted .154/.191/.185 with a bottom-of-the-barrel 22.2% hard-hit rate in 69 trips to the plate.

The Astros just lost backup Victor Caratini to a strained hip flexor that will sideline him for at least the next three to four weeks. They called up Triple-A backstop Cesar Salazar to pair with young Yainer Diaz in Caratini’s place, but the organizational catching depth beyond that point is quite thin. Narvaez will give the Astros some experienced depth in Sugar Land and could get a look in the majors if either Diaz or Salazar incurs an injury in the next few weeks — or in the event that Salazar, a 28-year-old rookie, struggles significantly.

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Houston Astros Transactions Omar Narvaez

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View Comments (26)
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26 Comments

  1. mlb fan

    1 year ago

    Narvaez has pulled off a neat trick; it’s not easy to accumulate -1 W.A.R in under 70 ABs.

    3
    Reply
    • Acoss1331

      1 year ago

      Yeah, he’s cooked…

      I actually thought some other losing team would pick him up…

      1
      Reply
      • Astros Hot Takes

        1 year ago

        Astros are not a losing team. 🙂

        4
        Reply
        • Acoss1331

          1 year ago

          @Astros Hot Takes

          Didn’t mean to offend, it’s just that your Astros have set some very lofty expectations for the last 8 seasons or so.

          2
          Reply
        • Astros Hot Takes

          1 year ago

          Gosh Warden, no offense taken! I posted that about 15 minutes after the astros won today, to FINALLY attain .500 mark this season.

          I REALLY appreciate that YOU appreciate how historically great this Astros run has been – they have matched or exceeded the Frank Robinson Orioles teams & Sparky Anderson’s Big Red Machine, in attainment.

          This has been a VERY fun near-decade for me; I keep a tab open on my pc that tracks all MLB teams’ W/L record since opening day 2015. Here’s what it looks like, right now

          Rank Team Record Win Percentage Made Playoffs Playoff Series Wins Titles
          1 Los Angeles Dodgers 895-543 62.2%
          9 11 1
          2 Houston Astros 840-595 58.5% 8
          15 2
          3 New York Yankees 823-614 57.3%
          7 6 0
          4 Cleveland Guardians
          Formerly: Cleveland Indians 795-636
          55.6% 5 3 0
          5 Tampa Bay Rays 779-657 54.2% 5
          4 0
          6 St. Louis Cardinals 772-659 53.9%
          5 1 0
          7 Boston Red Sox 771-665 53.7% 4
          5 1
          8 Chicago Cubs 770-666 53.6% 5
          6 1
          9 Atlanta Braves 765-665 53.5% 6
          5 1
          10 Milwaukee Brewers 761-676 53.0%
          5 1 0

          LOL!!!!! Dodgers 53.5 games better than Astros in that stretch!

          5
          Reply
        • Acoss1331

          1 year ago

          I wish the two Chicago teams had even a fraction of playoff appearances your Astros had lol

          The White Sox are in a rebuild after just coming out of one, that is a lot of bad baseball that I’m about to suffer through. The Cubs magical run brought in one World Series title, and a lot of early playoff exits, and right now the current team is sputtering when they should be much better in the standings. That’s why I tune in to other games, I can only stand so much frustration lol

          2
          Reply
  2. mostlytoasty

    1 year ago

    I think Salazar could be a pretty solid backstop there, bit of a late bloomer. Not a starter but a solid C2 kinda guy

    2
    Reply
    • ❤️ MuteButton

      1 year ago

      Salazar is a good catcher. I’m perfectly comfortable with either him or Caratini as the back up. Much better than Maldonado to say the least

      Reply
  3. LarryJ4

    1 year ago

    lol this miss the automatic out in Maldonado so much they got his exact replica in Narvaez. Guess if your not a great all around catcher you’ll always have a spot with the Astros!

    2
    Reply
    • ❤️ MuteButton

      1 year ago

      Believe it or not there are still Astro fans who wish he was still on the team

      Reply
  4. whyhayzee

    1 year ago

    “the organizational catching depth beyond that point is quite thin”

    Reply
    • wtfCheeseheadChuck

      1 year ago

      Always thought/saw Narvaez as a hefty fellow but are they eluding to him being fat now or….?

      Reply
      • Astros_fan_in_Aus

        1 year ago

        No, they are alluding.

        1
        Reply
  5. Frankie Bani

    1 year ago

    I try Canó over Torres !!!

    Reply
  6. positively_broad_st

    1 year ago

    Omar’s arm isn’t effective anymore. Dude was bouncing throws to second base on stolen base attempts. His caught stealing rate is at 6% this year. Unheard of for a MLB catcher…

    Reply
    • geofft

      1 year ago

      Thats just the tip of the iceberg. All of the passed balls, the interference calls. He did nothing right and everything miserably. And he just got worse and worse as the season wore on. Just one of the worst, if not the worst catching displays I’ve seen in 50 years. The Mets should’ve released him weeks earlier.

      1
      Reply
      • padam

        1 year ago

        Mets should’ve never signed him.

        Reply
      • Astros_fan_in_Aus

        1 year ago

        Worst ? You must not have seen Maldonado.

        Reply
  7. geofft

    1 year ago

    Their catching has been thin for most of the season. Narvaez was released weeks ago, an he as worse than horrible. They passed on signing a better catcher last week in Nido. So why now sign Narvaez now?
    Random crazy theory: Its been speculated that Nido, now playing for the Cubs, tipped off the umps to check Edwin Diaz’ glove…. The Astros face the Mets this weekend. Hmmm……

    Reply
  8. Sideline Redwine

    1 year ago

    hitting .154…still essentially twice as good as Alex Jackson lol. He must have pics of Kevin Cash or something…because he sure doesn’t impress defensively either (save your stats–I actually watch games rather than quantify subjective numbers).

    Reply
    • CBeisbol

      1 year ago

      Sideline

      “I actually watch games”

      Oh. Adios

      Reply
    • Russell Branyan

      1 year ago

      Yup, nothing subjective about the eye test

      Reply
    • Squeeze32

      1 year ago

      welcome back samuel

      Reply
  9. User 355748524

    1 year ago

    Pls keep Cesar Salad up. Narvaez shouldn’t even get a sniff of major league playing time as things stand.

    Reply
    • ❤️ MuteButton

      1 year ago

      It’s just insurance

      Reply
  10. User 3014224641

    1 year ago

    Tidy piece of business here

    Reply

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