Houston Astros Face Reality After a Disappointing Season
Instead of preparing for the playoffs, Houston Astros manager Joe Espada and general manager Dana Brown answered questions about their future with the team and what went wrong in the season. Brown secured his position as general manager and confirmed Espada’s contract as manager. The absence from the playoffs marks a significant change for the Astros, who had achieved seven consecutive appearances in the American League Championship Series from 2017 to 2023, with World Series victories in 2017 and 2022. This season was marked by injuries, affecting key players such as Yordan Álvarez, limited to 48 games due to injuries, and Isaac Paredes, who was out with hamstring problems. In addition to injuries to Álvarez and Paredes, the Astros suffered setbacks in their pitching staff, including Ronel Blanco undergoing Tommy John surgery and Spencer Arrighetti, who missed four months due to a thumb injury. The bullpen was also affected by Josh Hader’s injury.Despite these obstacles, the Astros were close to winning the American League West Division for the fifth consecutive season, but a sweep against the Seattle Mariners and losses to the Athletics and Angels prevented them from reaching the playoffs.“Make no mistake, when you remove pillars from your lineup, that’s going to affect your team, it’s going to affect some of their at-bats,” Brown said. “When Yordan Álvarez is in the lineup, you have to pitch differently. So I think Yordan’s absence really affected us a lot.”
Dana Brown
Espada is evaluating the team’s and its staff’s performance, including its own management, seeking areas for improvement for the next season. The Astros will seek to reinforce their rotation in the offseason, after focusing on improving their offense during the trade deadline. Brown mentioned that they will talk to Framber Valdez, who is a free agent, and plan to look for players to strengthen the rotation. Brown is confident in the current team’s potential and hopes that, with health, the Astros will return to the postseason.“This will put a thorn in our side,” Espada said. “We are a postseason team. We are built to play in October and it was disappointing that we are not playing today. I am not happy about that, but we are also learning from the things we could have done better, how we can improve our club and our players are eager to get back to spring training and play.”
Joe Espada
