AL West Update: Houston Astros

Overall

Looking forward to the future for the Astros it's interesting as they have a lot of guys slowly moving towards free agency and the back end of their prime years. But they have some new guys coming into replacing: Young arms in Forrest Whitley, Jose Urquidy, Bryan Abreu, Christian Javier, Enoli Paredes, and Brandon Bielak are all on the rise for the Astros.  Another guy is IF Abraham Toro who has hit well in the minor league level and struggled in Spring action and if he can get it together we will see him get called up in 2020 or even make the team due to the suspension. Speaking of young guys still, they optioned C Garrett Stubbs P Blake Taylor and IF Jack Mayfield were all optioned to AAA

In small news, AJ Reed did retire at only 26 years old and looked like he was going to have quite a decent career in the MiLB and found himself on the White Sox and had a 40% strikeout rate. Hopefully, he turns it around and maybe comes back from retirement. But either way, I wish him well. 

Overall, the Astros only have the 18th ranked farm system in the MLB and have a lot of guys whos return value is high and going towards the middle or back end of their prime. Their window for real contention is closing here soon over the next two years. With their state of the backlash they have got, they need to hit the reset on this team and move on from a lot of players and start to rebuild their team and show they turned over a new leaf. 

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Hitting

We should see how the contracts of George Springer and Carlos Correa are coming up for the Astros and there is no way they will be able to keep them with their track records and how good they have been. Its time for the Astros to sell high and let the next team deal with the contract situation. They have guys in Yordon Alvarez, Kyle Tucker is a guy with star upside with much more team control than Springer and is an easy replacement and an obvious one. 

Pitching

Bryan Abreu is one of the most likely prospects in the mix to be break camp and be in the starting rotation. He made his debut in 2019 and is only turning 23 this season in his action last season. He had 7 games out of the pen and 8 2/3IP  and had an ERA of 1.04. I fully expect him to be in the pen or even as a really good swingman. But, Austin Pruitt, Framber Valdez and Josh games are all ahead of him behind Zack Greinke, Lance McCullers Jr, and Jose Urquidy. Get used to Abreu though having an impact for years to come. The delayed season for teams really helps the Astros in terms of Justin Verlander being ready for the season we do have for 2020 But if he's not ready, he should be back pretty early. He was slowed by a lat injury and then now a groin injury which he had surgery on. 

Keeping on injuries Rogelio Armenteros had surgery back on March 14th due to a bone spur surgery and will be out for 4 months at least. This should put him back maybe in August and should look to fill a swingman role or primarily a pen role.