The Astros have seemingly had too many infielders all winter but general manager Dana Brown has consistently downplayed the possibility of a trade, doing so again this week. Privately, the club may be less certain about holding everyone. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that some people within the team are questioning the viability of carrying everyone on the roster and that a trade is becoming more realistic.
Last year, the Astros had Isaac Paredes at third base and Christian Walker at first, at least for the first half of the season. Paredes suffered a significant hamstring strain in July, which prompted the Astros to acquire Carlos Correa from the Twins. Going into 2026, they project to have Jeremy Peña at shortstop, Jose Altuve at second base, Correa at third and then either Walker or Paredes at first.
Putting Paredes at the keystone and using Altuve in the outfield is generally seen as less than ideal. Altuve was bad in the outfield last year. Paredes hasn’t played second base since 2023 and there’s skepticism about how viable he would be if put back there again, though the Astros will have him do some drills there during camp.
Most of the rumors have therefore involved the Astros trading either Walker or Paredes and having the other cover first base. Walker is coming off a bit of a down year and is owed $20MM annually for another two years, making him hard to trade, especially since he’s about to turn 35. Paredes would have value but his lower salary is appealing to an Astros club looking to limbo under the luxury tax. He’ll make $9.35MM this year, less than half of Walker. He’ll get a bump in 2027 but would still be well under Walker’s $20MM salary.
If a trade doesn’t come together, manager Joe Espada would be left to find playing time for everyone by scattering off-days around the group. Using the designated hitter spot will be a challenge because the club wants to have Yordan Alvarez in there as often as possible. Though Brown has downplayed the rumors over and over again, there’s still time for a trade to come together.
Rome also notes that the Astros plan to give Cam Smith some center field reps in spring training. Smith came up as a third baseman but the Astros moved him to right field last year so that he would have a better path to playing time. He earned a big league job and showed some promise but his .236/.312/.358 batting line was subpar.
The bar for passable offense is a bit lower in center field, where teams often prioritize defense. Smith graded out well in right field last year, getting credited with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and one above par by Outs Above Average. His sprint speed was ranked in the 95th percentile last year, so he should have the wheels to move to center. The Astros considered some center field time for Smith last year but he didn’t get any game time there.
If Smith can hack it up the middle, that could open up a few possibilities for the club. They have been looking to add a left-handed bat to the lineup and could perhaps slot someone into right field. They have Jesús Sánchez on the roster but he struggled late last year and has been in some trade rumors. Center fielder Jake Meyers has also been in trade rumors and perhaps the club could feel more comfortable pulling the trigger there if Smith seems viable in the middle spot.
Turning to the pitching staff, Espada noted this week that Lance McCullers Jr. would be built up a starter in camp, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. McCullers was a starter for most of last year but was moved to the bullpen in August. Injuries led to him missing the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He was back on the mound last year but his velocity was down and he posted a 6.51 earned run average on the year.
Whether he can turn things around and get back on track is anyone’s guess. He will be further removed from his lengthy injury odyssey but the results in 2025 weren’t encouraging. The Astros may have a six-man rotation for a decent amount of 2026. McCullers projects to be in there with Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows and Ryan Weiss, with guys like Nate Pearson, Spencer Arrighetti, AJ Blubaugh, Miguel Ullola, Jason Alexander, Colton Gordon and Kai-Wei Teng also on the roster. Over the course of the season, Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter will be trying to come back from Tommy John surgeries performed in 2025. McCullers is going into the final season of the extension he signed in 2021 and will be paid $17MM this year.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Gonna have to pay someone to take Christian Walker off their hands. Can’t carry him and Paredes with the DH slot very much taken.
No doubt they much prefer offloading Walker, but nobody is gonna roll the dice on $20M for a 35-year-old guy who just had the worst season of his career unless they pay it down and include a significant prospect. On the other hand they can probably get a decent rotation piece plus for Paredes.
I don’t think Walker is so bad you have to pay off like 30 million and include someone like Neyens or even someone like Pecko or Mayer.
Yep. I think eating half the remaining contract and getting a lottery ticket back is more than fair.
Might as well just keep him for when Correa inevitably gets injured
That’s their problem. Why did they want him back in the first place? I’d rather be stuck with the Walker contract than the Correa one.
Because at the deadline they were just a few games out of the top seed in the AL and had just lost Paredes for the season, and they had a unique opportunity to bring back an extremely popular player at a significant discount. They’re basically paying the same for Correa that they are for Walker.
Send him to the mets
We’ll trade Walker and Abreu to you for a few prospects and we eat 10M per year.
Christian Walker for Manaea straight up.
Astros would love that. I don’t know if the Mets would.
Why not he probably gets hurt in spring training
Cause at the same price, an injury prone starting pitcher is still worth more than a declining 1B. Astros would be happy to include Jesus Sanchez though.
That pushes them over the luxury tax threshold. I think they’d rather keep Walker than gain salary.
I would do Jesus Sanchez and Christian Walker for Sean Manea. I’d even attach Meyers if you attach a decent prospect.
Astros are solid on their rotation, especially with a couple of the Tommy John boys coming back around the all star break. I think they should trade Jake Meyers and Christian Walker to have this starting lineup in no particular order:
– Paredes, Altuve, Pena, Correa, Diaz, Alvarez, Cole, Smith, Sanchez.
Gives them 3 left handed bats and have Nick Allen or Zack Dezenzo to be utility if any of those guys need day off or get hurt.
Nick Allen can play 2 positions. What utility!
He plays 3 positions, and they’re all the most important ones.
What three?
The important ones!
Shortstop, second base, and what? We have Pena at short, Matthews, Paredes, and Altuve on second.
He plays 3B as well. The last man on the bench almost never gets an AB anyway, a cheap light hitting defensive specialist is perfect for that role.
We have Matthews that can play both Allen’s positions. I heard he has a noodle arm.
Matthews needs everyday ABs, they’re not gonna carry him as the last man on the bench. He needs to be in AAA unless he’s the starter. Again, Allen is perfect for that role. Just a late inning defensive replacement and emergency starter.
Just speaking as a guy who saw the kid play but I find it hard to believe the Astros went out and got Correa back to play 3B when all they had to do was put Cam Smith where he belongs instead of trying to make him something he’s not. Now CF? Seriously? Maybe the reason his bat suffered was because they’re filling his head with butterflies moving him around in the OF. And now they’re complaining about the Tax. Huh Go figure.
What? Cam as a prospect was never considered a good defender at 3B. As an outfielder he was a gold glove finalist. His bat suffered because he jumped from college to the majors in one year. Weird take.
Getting Correa back was the dumb move that’s causing the current logjam. You’re right, they should have been prioritizing getting Smith acclimated smoothly to the majors. Not bringing back a declining player with a bloated contract.
I hope the Pirates are in on Paredes. I wonder if a package where Password Garcia is the headliner would get it done.
Why would the Pirates trade Garcia for Paredes?
At this point Houston trading Paredes would be a salary dump and not a move to net a significant return
I think if they weren’t expecting a significant return, a trade would have already happened with the Red Sox.
They need outfield depth and the Pirates don’t necessarily need Password. Though I want to keep him, if he got us Paredes, I’d absolutely do it.
Stupid talk. They would rather use the logjam rather than dump Paredes.
Paredes is an all-star not a salary dump, what is this take?
He’s also an expensive bench piece. The Astros did this to themselves a second time signing a mid-thirties First Baseman to an expensive multi-year deal, only this time they went out and added an expensive aging Infielder to clog the other corner and the cheaper, better player is being squeezed out
He’s not a bench piece on most teams. If your Red Sox will only offer Masataka Yoshida, The Pirates will offer multiple assets.
They are one of my favorite teams at the moment.
If they can’t find a taker for Walker, just hold firm and find a way to make it work. I’d rather have an awkward positional fit than trade Paredes for anything less than an All-Star bat.
Paredes can get into 3 games a week at least as a starter apoearing at 1B/3B/DH. There is no immediate need to move him other than his salary
His salary is quite reasonable, that’s not a reason to move him at all.
three games a week lol.
Yeah dude is their 2nd best hitter he’s playing way more than 3 games a week. Maybe they shoehorn him in at 2B, maybe they play Yordan in the field a little more than they’re comfortable with. There’s a way to make it work.
I really hope McCullers Jr. can bounce back. It’s his first healthy Offseason in a while, so that’s really good. I think Paredes best suitor is the Pirates now, and hopefully we can find a Walker taker. The Mets maybe? Good for Smith to learn center field so we can maybe trade Meyers again?
McCullers is pretty much toast. The Astros have to pay him for the ’26 season, but it’s dead money.
He’s either in the rotation or not on the roster.
I think he’d make a decent reliever and as low as he is on the depth chart that might be his only path now.
Arrighetti should easily be able to make the rotation if he can avoid the injury bug.
@Hammerin’ Hank – Agree, he has the stuff. If he’s healthy and they can get him back on track I think he’s a good bet to be in the rotation.
Give him a 6 year, 42 million extension.
Any time a guy misses significant time with elbow soreness, it’s almost a guarantee he’ll be getting TJ within a year. I hope I’m wrong but I would be surprised if he doesn’t go under the knife before July.
Start him out soft, 6 man rotation, occasional breaks.
As many starters as we have I think a 6 man rotation is a foregone conclusion anyway.
I don’t like the 6 man very much because it takes a spot away from the bullpen. However, if we need to use it, we can. Maybe limit the starters who need to start slow to like 80 pitches every once in a while?
One way to make the 6 man work is to have one starter skip a start each time through the rotation and make a scheduled relief appearance instead. Except HB, definitely don’t do that with him haha.
As a swingman? Interesting…
I think Brown should get consistent starts every fifth day. That’s the other reason I don’t like a 6 man.
Well as I said, HB would be exempt from the swingman plan. So that’s a way of keeping him on a 5 day schedule. Another way to do it would be to have him leapfrog the next guy whenever his day in the rotation comes up, giving one guy an additional day of rest each time through the rotation.
Altuve in the outfield has never made sense to me. Let Peredes play third and let Correa back him up.
Altuve in LF makes about 1000% more sense than leaving Correa on the bench. Get out with that nonsense.
Agree you are one of the few sensible people that actually know the Astros. I agree Correa on the bench is nonsense.
Paredes fits fine at 1B everyday.
Walker is a very expensive pinch hitter unless they can trade him.
I do not like Cam in outfield at moment. CF not sure on either. He NEVER should have made the team last year. He was to go to Corpus for work. He never had time in AAA. Not sure how much AA he had with Cubs. Still cannot tell if deal was good with the Cubs or not. Wesneski got hurt. Whether he is back at ASB or not remains to be seen. Blanco as well. How are all the pitchers we have as Starters going to get work and more. Spencer was in rotation last season but injuries. BluBaugh filled in and Alexander was in rotation. McCullers still question in rotation. Will he bounce back or will he be off and walk people or more and not even make it out of first or through 5. We do have Cole, Dezenzo, Sanchez, Meyers, Cam all for outfield. Leave Alvarez at DH. Put Altuve back at 2B. He did well there over outfield experiment. Just being so laid back and more disturbs me. I know Mariners got Donovan. Astros/Red Sox talk for Abreu as well and sending Paredes to them. I still do not know what our offense will look like. If Altuve struggles like last season. I know his age and such things. Will Alvarez bounce back. Also he needs to be 3rd or 4th. Like he was with Dusty/Hinch He is not a 2 spot. Pena is leadoff. Leave him there and have Altuve 2nd. How the rest are used in lineup and more. Walker is the one that is in lineups I see other sports people show. Paredes is not. Sanchez either nor Cole. But we all know how much Espada knows how to make a lineup out. Different every day. Granted if someone good against LHP then use such players. If RHP then use what players handle those better. I just hope something exciting to see for next season with the slogan Chase the Fight or such.
Thanks for sharing your opinion.
I think the Cam Smith playing outfield in the majors gives us a legitimate right fielder and hopefully either him/Brice Matthews (prospects getting CF reps) can make Meyers expendable. By the way, he had 30 games of minor league time in TOTAL.
I think that Cam will spend a lot of time at AAA this year (so will Matthews). They’ll have their chance in 2027 and the Astros will extend both (my predictions).
I think the deal was good but again, it is still too early to tell. Paredes produced much of what Tucker missed and all it takes is 2 good seasons in total from either Wesneski/Smith in TOTAL or a nice return for Paredes and the return plays out well to make it a good deal.
I think Arrighetti performed well and I love and support Spencer a ton. That’s why I would offer him 6 year, 42 million right NOW. Yes I probably am biased but 6 year, 42 million could be a steal.
I agree that McCullers Jr. is still a question mark and so is Alexander. If someone is willing to give up a 20-30 prospect for him, I’d do it.
I like our outfield but we should add a veteran platoon bat. I’m pretty sure Red Sox/Astros talks are dead now that Dana Brown has realized he doesn’t want to send Paredes to an AL contender and we may keep him either way.
If Altuve performs like last season, I’d take 20+ homers and 70+ RBI. Alvarez will bounce back is that even a question? Why would you ask that question is my question.
Yes, Alvarez is not a No.2, he’s No. 3, Paredes is No. 2. The reason Alvarez was No. 2 was cuz he needed to get as many AB as possible and yes Pena is leadoff. Altuve cleanup, Walker 5, Diaz 6.
By the way, Walker can play left field. Cole and Sanchez are platoon and back of lineup hitters. Read the platoon article by Crawfish Boxes.
crawfishboxes.com/houston-astros-analysis/72053/in…
We will Chase the Fight, I hope we win the fight. Enjoy!
Walker in LF? That seems highly unlikely but it’s not the worst idea I’ve heard.
The reason I’m saying it is because he actually has played left. At least in his prospect days. Astros should give him reps because he actually has experience. Although I would rather have Altuve. Just don’t put Paredes out there.
I think they were just trying to find a way to get him ABs while they still had Goldschmidt and no DH, certainly not something they would have ever done willingly. And yes I don’t mind Altuve in LF. Yes he sucks there but he sucks at 2B too, I’d rather have bad defense in LF than 2B. LF is a bat-first position for a reason.
Walker came from the O’s system. Not sure what they had back in the day.
Cards should grab walker and a prospect or 2 for jojo romero and nootbar
Why would any rebuilding team want Walker?
Why would we need Jojo Romero. We don’t need to sacrifice prospect capital for Romero when he have 3 lefties and potentially 4 depending on Sousa. No need to make it 5.
Barring a trade they should do this
DH/2b Altuve
LF/DH Yordan
1/3/2 Paredes
1b C Walker
I saw keep them all. A veteran team like the Astros be preparing for the playoffs. I would rather have everybody so you can have a stacked line up for the playoffs. Rotate everybody during the regular season and keep players healthy and fresh for playoffs. No need to trade anyone
One or two months into the season, it will become glaringly obvious that 2025 second half Christian Walker was the real deal and Altuve is well past his prime. Altuve will become a bench player and an offseason DFA possibility and Paredes will become a mainstay at 2B. Astros will trade for an OF for a playoff run from their SP depth which will surge back as everyone returns from injury in the second half of 2026. LMC will be a bullpen piece as he should have been for 3 years now.
Altuve an offseason DFA bro put down the pipe