The Astros’ focus this offseason has been on bolstering the pitching staff, and they’ve done that in a meaningful way with acquisitions of Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows and KBO standout Ryan Weiss. They’re not entirely done tweaking the roster yet, however. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Houston has interest in a reunion with veteran catcher Christian Vázquez following Victor Caratini’s free agent departure. A deal between the two parties isn’t seen as close, Rome adds, but the interest is nonetheless notable in that it signifies interest in adding a veteran backup to 27-year-old Yainer Diaz.
At the moment, the out-of-options César Salazar is the only other catcher on Houston’s 40-man roster. Salazar will turn 30 in March and has 67 major league plate appearances under his belt. He’s a .232/.318/.268 hitter in that minuscule sample and hasn’t fared too much better in the upper minors. He slashed .213/.353/.353 in 186 Triple-A plate appearances last year and is a lifetime .226/.361/.348 hitter in 799 trips to the plate at that level.
Salazar is a fine defender who draws enough walks in Triple-A to post solid on-base numbers. However, the bit of power he showed earlier in his career — 27 home runs in 639 minor league plate appearances from 2021-22 — has completely dried up in recent seasons. Salazar has come to the plate 796 times between the majors and minors across the past three seasons and connected on 15 home runs. His 2025 season in the majors consisted of only 11 games and 16 plate appearances, but Statcast measured his average sprint speed at 22.4 feet per second — the second-slowest mark in Major League Baseball.
Vázquez, 35, isn’t much fleeter of foot (24.7 ft/sec) and has a long track record of sub-par to poor offense. He hit .189/.271/.274 in 214 plate appearances with Minnesota last season and slashed only .215/.267/.311 in 884 turns at the plate over his three years as a Twin. Vázquez is an elite defender, however, and he draws plenty of praise for his game-calling and ability to manage a pitching staff.
While Vázquez wouldn’t move the needle much in terms of Houston’s overall chances at contending, there’s something to be said for bringing in a veteran who can at least handle a bigger workload while providing plus glovework in the event of a Diaz injury. Presently, if Houston were to lose Diaz to an injury, they’d be looking at Salazar and either 2022 sixth-rounder Collin Price or non-roster invitee Carlos Pérez as their catching tandem. Price has split his time between catching, first base and the outfield. He draws decent framing marks but poor grades for his throwing and ability to block balls in the dirt. Pérez is a 35-year-old journeyman who hasn’t played in the majors since 2023 and carries a career .218/.267/.327 line in 859 plate appearances.
Vázquez spent the second half of the 2022 season with the ’Stros and still has some familiarity with several members of the staff. He caught Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu and Lance McCullers Jr. that season, and current ace Hunter Brown made his MLB debut late in the ’22 campaign as well. Vázquez also knows Astros lefty Steven Okert from the pair’s time together in Minnesota during the 2024 season.
If not Vázquez, some kind of low-cost catching acquisition feels prudent. Alternate options in free agency include Jonah Heim, Gary Sánchez, Elias Díaz, Luke Maile, Mitch Garver and Matt Thaiss. It’s also likely that there will be some catchers passed around the waiver carousel over the course of spring training, and Houston could jump on any of those names as they become available as well.
The Astros want to remain under the luxury tax threshold in 2026. RosterResource pegs their current CBT obligations at about $238.5MM — $5.5MM shy of the $244MM threshold. Bringing in another catcher should be doable while still leaving some modest breathing room for in-season additions.
Thank God!! The Red Sox don’t need a .545 OPS catcher, they already have Wong.
You’re Wong.
Last thing you consider in your backup catcher is his hitting ability., and Vazquez is a better defensively than Wong. It would be an improvement, unless youre looking at the back of his baseball card.
Hayzee – Yep and I don’t want to be replaced 😉
The Jays thank the Red Sox for putting Tyler Heineman on waivers
No one saw that coming
He was a heck of a good defender for us last year but watching him bat was not fun at all.
So they want to upgrade from a 30 year old Catcher that can’t hit to a 35 year old Catcher that can’t hit? Honestly i hope they do because the longer Vazquez sits in free agency that more tempted Breslow might be to bring him back to Boston
Better him than Wong.
backup catcher is a bit like utility infielder. The first thing you go by is defense and offense is a distant second.
Disagree.
Primary catcher defense first.
Backup catcher ideally a bat off the bench, so offense should be considered for sure.
If we’re talking an MiLB deal with an invite to camp, that would be great.
Look at his career stats and guess which season had the juiced balls.
I remember he was having a great season in BOS when they picked him up a few years ago at the deadline, then he rode the pine for two months straight.
Huh I thought Salazar had one more option year left.
Vazquez will be a good veteran presence. However, is he going to be better than Salazar? I’d be fine with Vazquez, or Salazar, Perez, Price, Heim, or anyone else. However, I wouldn’t go past 2 million for Vazquez.
First wait to see who signs Framber. Then sign Vazquez and trade Salazar to the team who signed Framber. 🤣
Salazar is an AAAA player. Hopefully he can turn into a big league caliber catcher.
AAAA implies that he’s not good enough for MLB, but too good for AAA. Based on his results, the second part doesn’t appear to be true.
Always have a soft spot for Vazquez in Boston. Admittedly, catchers are usually my favorite players. But his work behind the plate is unreal!