HOUSTON — Desperation is drawing near for their depleted outfield so, on Monday afternoon, the Houston Astros made another roster move. Trey Cabbage struck out 19 times while posting a .493 OPS across his last 43 Triple-A plate appearances and, somehow, earned a promotion.
Upon his return, Cabbage hit seventh, struck out twice more and prolonged a putrid stretch for an otherwise surging team. The Astros are out of options in their search for outfield stability, which is perhaps the only barrier between them and a total breakaway atop the American League West. That they have still built a five-game lead is remarkable.
No satisfactory solution exists amid Houston’s carousel of struggling prospects and underperforming major-league talent. According to FanGraphs, only six teams are extracting less value from their outfields since the All-Star break than the Astros. Kyle Tucker’s absence is crippling, but it’s not the only thing to blame.
The Astros’ anemia accentuates a two-year-old trade deadline decision. The Boston Red Sox’s presence in Houston — and at the ballpark where the trade transpired — only furthers wonder of how well Wilyer Abreu would solve much of what is ailing his former club.
Two Augusts ago, the Astros traded Abreu and infielder Enmanuel Valdez to the Red Sox for two months of backup catcher Christian Vázquez. Abreu had not played a game above Double A at the time; he has since blossomed into an American League Rookie of the Year candidate, carrying an .836 OPS into Tuesday’s game with an ability to play all three outfield positions.
“I still remember when it happened here, we heard about the at-bats,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “When I saw him in spring training last year, the way he played, the aggression, the at-bats, I was very impressed.
“There’s a learning curve at the big-league level. From Triple A to the big leagues, there’s a lot of stuff that you have to do to become a guy. We’ve lived with it with some of the guys, but for him, he’s been steady from the get-go, since his first game here.”
Wilyer Abreu hits this to Eutaw Street 🚀 pic.twitter.com/zQl2KOHnJb
— MLB (@MLB) August 15, 2024
The Astros have not had such a luxury. None of Pedro LeĂłn, Zach Dezenzo or Shay Whitcomb has provided the spark Houston sought upon promoting them. Even Joey Loperfido failed to find any consistency before being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he had 20 strikeouts in his first 49 at-bats.
Houston promoted León in Loperfido’s place. León struck out 10 times in 20 major-league at-bats while authoring an affront to fundamental baseball during the team’s series in Tampa Bay. The Astros optioned him back to Triple-A Sugar Land on Monday to make room for Cabbage.
To hear Astros manager Joe Espada explain it, “getting Pedro León some at-bats every day in Triple A, that was the primary move.” León has already taken 1,567 plate appearances across 353 Triple-A games. Espada was protecting a prospect who failed his first test at the major-league level, a fate Houston hoped to avoid but had no choice but to watch unfold.
Abreu avoided any of that in Boston. Since making his debut in 2023 — coincidentally inside Minute Maid Park — he has a 127 OPS+ and a .344 on-base percentage while walking at a 9.3 percent clip. Longtime Astros hitting instructor Rene Rojas honed Abreu’s heralded plate discipline, as did Rafael Peña, now part of the Philadelphia Phillies’ major-league staff.
“I always talk about what (the Astros) do offensively throughout the minor leagues. One thing they preach and they’re very tough on the guys (about) is you have to control the strike zone, and that’s what he does,” said Cora, formerly Houston’s bench coach.
Assuming Abreu would’ve authored an identical ascent as an Astro is dangerous, but as Houston continues to spin its wheels, it’s difficult to ignore how well Abreu would fit into what this team needs — now and in the future.
Tucker is a free agent after next season and the team doesn’t want to overexpose Yordan Alvarez to left field. Abreu is not a free agent until after the 2029 season, at which time this trade can be adequately judged.
Earlier during that 2022 trade deadline, though, then-manager Dusty Baker conspired with owner Jim Crane to veto an agreed-upon trade of oft-injured starter José Urquidy for Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras.
Whether canceling the Contreras trade forced former general manager James Click to pivot isn’t known — Crane fired Click after the season — but it stands to reason it must have had some impact. That Vázquez caught a combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series and the championship clincher in Game 6 can’t be forgotten, either.
Those two performances alone make Vázquez’s acquisition more than worthwhile, no matter what Abreu may morph into over the next five-plus seasons. It’s clear, though, that Houston could regret parting with him.
Without Abreu, calling up Cabbage on Monday remained the most rational choice. The Astros’ 5-4 win started a stretch of five consecutive games against right-handed starting pitchers, so it behooved the club to add another left-handed bat.
Cabbage at least provides that. Abreu, too. So does Ben Gamel, whom Houston claimed off waivers on Tuesday afternoon and will add to its active roster within the next 72 hours, perhaps at Cabbage’s expense.
Gamel raises the outfield’s floor, but he still sports a 95 OPS+ across his past 468 major-league plate appearances. Above-average hitters aren’t abundant on the waiver wire, so it’s tough to expect anything more.
Only Tucker’s return will allow the Astros some semblance of stability. One of Chas McCormick, Mauricio Dubón or Jake Meyers getting hot would help, but all three awoke on Tuesday with an OPS+ lower than 93.
An acceptable answer to this outfield problem is not arriving any time soon. That one slipped away is a fate Houston must accept.
(Photo of Wilyer Abreu: Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
