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.
Vasquez is clearly a better backup but Wong was hurt last year. He needs to show the world is 2024 side as while I love what Narvaez showed, he was hurt too but it could also have been that the league caught up with him. Both Sox catchers have something to prove this spring.
Hayzee – Yep and I don’t want to be replaced 😉
Favorite backup catcher of all time is still Bob Montgomery.
Mine too! Last player not to wear a batting helmet. While no one can argue about Remy’s booth greatness, Bob was very good himself.
Hayzee… give me John Marzano who had a walk off hit I saw way back when!!! Rocket started and gave up a bomb to the great Dave Valle!!! Before his heroics!!
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.
Okay, but I never said go with a poor defensive primary catcher.
Primary catcher should be able to do both to a degree, thats what makes him the starter. Narvaez is an excellent defensive catcher, but I’d still rather have a Sandy Leon type backup for him. The other positional backups should do the heavy lifting when it comes to ‘bat off the bench’.
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.
Because Houston had an even better defensive catcher in Maldonado. When Vasquez stopped hitting in Houston, they went with the better backstop. Not many took put Vasquez on the pine back then but Maldonado was one of the few that did.
Also remember that the trade of Vasquez to Houston netted Boston Wilyer Abreu. That was a hell of trade for Chaim Bloom!
Dorothy, Bloom’s only issue in my view was an inability to assess pitching. Many still blame him for the Mookie trade that was fully on ownership. He was forced to include Price the same way the Dodgers years earlier took Beckett and Crawford just to get AGon. It also happened last year with Devers. Henry pinches pennies at times with the Sox to invest elsewhere.
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.
A .189 hitter with poor defense? Hell no. Salazar would be better.
He does not have poor defense. Not sure what you are yapping about.
I thought Salazar had another minor league option still. That would have made it a no-brainer. Still, like Vazquez’s clubhouse presence and familiarity with the organization. Also it’s a good bet Salazar would clear waivers and could be outrighted.
It would be risky. but if you outright someone like France or Alexander to clear a roster spot. They are getting claimed 100%.
Yeah most organizations have room to take a flier on an out of options starter who’s shown some major league success. A light hitting backup catcher is much more likely to clear.
Looking at the 40-man, Blanco, Wesneski, and Walter will go to 60 day. However, if they sign someone before that, I could see them trying to sneak Shay Whitcomb through waivers.
Whitcomb is pretty much just a warm body, he’ll be high on the list of DFA candidates.
If we were to get a new player on the 40-man. Whitcomb would be the first. Who’s after that? I’m not sure.
Well they’re also not gonna carry 3 catchers on the 26 man so if they sign Vazquez and Salazar is indeed out of options, it’ll be him.
I hope it’s Salazar that gets the backup job.
I think 2 million is a bit of an overspend for Vasquez. Sure he’s got some good defensive qualities but not enough to elevate him over Salazar. 2 million for just veteran presence? Not wise in my opinion. Salazar is 30 years old and can handle it. He’s also tough enough to take a Valdez fastball off the chest and not even complain.
Yeah. I would be very fine with Salazar. 2 million AT MAX.
First wait to see who signs Framber. Then sign Vazquez and trade Salazar to the team who signed Framber. 🤣
Bro that was funny 😂
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!
Trading Vazquez for Wilyer Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez (later traded for Joe Vogatsky) was one of the best moves of Bloom’s tenure. Moving Diekman (who couldn’t throw strikes) for Reese McGuire made it even better.
McGuire would put up 1.3 fWAR for the rest of the 2022 season while Vazquez had 0.2 fWAR while mostly riding the bench.
Worth mentioning that Vazquez caught the no-hitter in the WS that year. I think both teams got what they were looking for.
Seriously? A poor defensive catcher who hit .250 for 2 MLB players, one of which has 2 gold gloves? Astros got fleeced!
They won the World Series with Vasquez playing a huge part. Do you wanna win the trade or the WS? lol
Good point. yankeejim is spewing nonsense.
He’s… a good defender. And both of the guys they traded for him were not highly regarded prospects at the time, it happens. Oh and do you remember they won the WORLD SERIES that year, with Vazquez catching the game 4 no-hitter?
I think Vazquez would be a great addition for Boston. He’s a veteran who can help Narvaez on and off the field. When you’re a rookie it’s good to have a veteran show you the ins and outs of the game as well as the city
Are they hoping if they sign him they can get the Red Sox to do something stupid like trade Wilyer Abreu for him?
No, because they actually need a backup catcher.
ken – At the time I was the ONLY one here who loved that deal. One of Bloom’s best moves, along with Pivetta.
That very day I said Abreu would win a Gold Glove and you laughed at me. It was a Tuesday and unusually breezy with a hint of orange in the air. I had just eaten some grapes and was making tea when the trade was announced. I was wearing a light blue T shirt from a Flecktones concert and the neighbor’s dog was barking.
No doubt they’re hoping to trade him for Wilyer Abreu, including so far as the give Vazquez a new nickname – The Receipt.
Bruh. Do you follow the Astros?
This guy makes all these off-his-meds unhinged rants about Dana, he’s not a serious person.
Dana traded for Kai Wei Teng.
Caratini signed for $7M per year, what are you on about?