The Astros announced today that catcher César Salazar has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Sugar Land. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when Houston set its Opening Day roster. He’ll stick in the organization as non-roster depth.
Salazar, 30, has effectively been Houston’s #3 catcher for several years. Yainer Diaz has been the primary guy since 2023. Martín Maldonado split the time with him in his first year, then Victor Caratini replaced Maldonado for 2024 and 2025. Salazar got sporadic playing time in that mix, playing in 36 games over the 2023 to 2025 seasons. He has a decent defensive reputation but produced a .232/.318/.268 batting line in his 67 plate appearances.
He exhausted his final option last year, meaning he is now out of options. With Caratini departing in free agency this offseason, Salazar was bumped up into the #2 spot by default. However, the Astros grabbed Christian Vázquez via a minor league deal a few weeks ago. They decided to add him to the roster for Opening Day, meaning Salazar had to be bumped off.
This is Salazar’s first career outright and he has less than three years of service time. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency, so he’ll report to the Space Cowboys. He could be the first man up if Diaz or Vázquez suffers an injury as the Astros don’t have another catcher on the 40-man roster. His main competition would be Carlos Pérez, who is in the system via a minor league deal and will be in Sugar Land as well.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
No, Maldy was the primary in 2023 and Dusty got criticized by people for that. Diaz ascended to the primary role in 2024. I guess Salazar still is the third catcher.
I can’t be the only one who read that as César Saladar.