{"id":146037,"date":"2026-02-01T02:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T02:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146037\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T02:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T02:58:25","slug":"in-need-of-right-handed-depth-astros-acquire-kai-wei-teng-from-giants-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/146037\/","title":{"rendered":"In need of right-handed depth, Astros acquire Kai-Wei Teng from Giants: Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kai-Wei<\/p>\n

Kai-Wei Teng carded a 6.37 ERA in 2025. Norm Hall \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

To increase their roster flexibility and add more right-handed options in their bullpen, the Houston Astros are acquiring swingman Kai-Wei Teng from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for minor-league catcher Jancel Villarroel, multiple league sources told The Athletic on Thursday.<\/p>\n

To clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Teng, Houston is designating J.P. France for assignment. Teng will be stretched out as a starter in spring training, but his most straightforward path to making the major league team may be as a long reliever. The Astros plan to open the season with a six-man rotation, magnifying the need for relievers who can pitch multiple innings.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has minor-league options remaining. None of Bryan Abreu, Roddery Mu\u00f1oz, Nate Pearson or Enyel De Los Santos do, but all four right-handed relievers have an inside track to make Houston\u2019s Opening Day bullpen<\/a>. Having Teng as insurance could help make the roster more adaptable.<\/p>\n

Teng has struggled to a 7.30 ERA in 12 appearances over the past two seasons but continued to intrigue Giants officials because of his durability, his six-pitch mix and his ability to miss bats at all levels.<\/p>\n

Used in a swingman role at Triple-A Sacramento last season, the right-hander posted a 3.95 ERA \u2014 respectable for the Pacific Coast League \u2014 and struck out a whopping 89 batters in 57 innings. But command and consistency have been issues. He\u2019s issued 25 walks in 40 2\/3 major league innings \u2014 and the Giants are out of balance with 24 pitchers on their 40-man roster.<\/p>\n

San Francisco had to make a corresponding move when it announced its two-year contract with outfielder Harrison Bader, and Teng was a candidate to be designated for assignment.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the Astros liked him enough to pay a modest price to jump the claiming line. Baseball America named Villarroel as the Astros\u2019 No. 20 prospect in its most recent organizational rankings. The 21-year-old Venezuelan catcher reached High-A Asheville last season.<\/p>\n

Teng is one of two current major leaguers from Taiwan and was heavily recruited to play in the World Baseball Classic, but has not yet committed to joining the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kai-Wei Teng carded a 6.37 ERA in 2025. Norm Hall \/ Getty Images To increase their roster flexibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,5513,58,57,61104],"class_list":["post-146037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}