{"id":452867,"date":"2026-02-06T17:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452867\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T17:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:24:08","slug":"astros-notes-paredes-walker-smith-mccullers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452867\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Notes: Paredes, Walker, Smith, McCullers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros have seemingly had too many infielders all winter but general manager Dana Brown has consistently downplayed the possibility of a trade, doing so again this week<\/a>. Privately, the club may be less certain about holding everyone. Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a> reports that some people within the team are questioning the viability of carrying everyone on the roster and that a trade is becoming more realistic.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Astros had Isaac Paredes<\/a> at third base and Christian Walker<\/a> at first, at least for the first half of the season. Paredes suffered a significant hamstring strain in July, which prompted the Astros to acquire Carlos Correa<\/a> from the Twins. Going into 2026, they project to have Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a> at shortstop, Jose Altuve<\/a> at second base, Correa at third and then either Walker or Paredes at first.<\/p>\n

Putting Paredes at the keystone and using Altuve in the outfield is generally seen as less than ideal. Altuve was bad in the outfield last year. Paredes hasn\u2019t played second base since 2023 and there\u2019s skepticism about how viable he would be if put back there again, though the Astros will have him do some drills there during camp.<\/p>\n

Most of the rumors have therefore involved the Astros trading either Walker or Paredes and having the other cover first base. Walker is coming off a bit of a down year and is owed $20MM annually for another two years, making him hard to trade, especially since he\u2019s about to turn 35. Paredes would have value but his lower salary is appealing to an Astros club looking to limbo under the luxury tax. He\u2019ll make $9.35MM this year, less than half of Walker. He\u2019ll get a bump in 2027 but would still be well under Walker\u2019s $20MM salary.<\/p>\n

If a trade doesn\u2019t come together, manager Joe Espada would be left to find playing time for everyone by scattering off-days around the group. Using the designated hitter spot will be a challenge because the club wants to have Yordan Alvarez<\/a> in there as often as possible. Though Brown has downplayed the rumors over and over again, there\u2019s still time for a trade to come together.<\/p>\n

Rome also notes that the Astros plan to give Cam Smith<\/a> some center field reps in spring training. Smith came up as a third baseman but the Astros moved him to right field last year so that he would have a better path to playing time. He earned a big league job and showed some promise but his .236\/.312\/.358 batting line was subpar.<\/p>\n

The bar for passable offense is a bit lower in center field, where teams often prioritize defense. Smith graded out well in right field last year, getting credited with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and one above par by Outs Above Average. His sprint speed was ranked in the 95th percentile last year, so he should have the wheels to move to center. The Astros considered some center field time for Smith last year but he didn\u2019t get any game time there.<\/p>\n

If Smith can hack it up the middle, that could open up a few possibilities for the club. They have been looking to add a left-handed bat to the lineup and could perhaps slot someone into right field. They have Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez<\/a> on the roster but he struggled late last year and has been in some trade rumors. Center fielder Jake Meyers<\/a> has also been in trade rumors and perhaps the club could feel more comfortable pulling the trigger there if Smith seems viable in the middle spot.<\/p>\n

Turning to the pitching staff, Espada noted this week that Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a> would be built up a starter in camp, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com<\/a>. McCullers was a starter for most of last year but was moved to the bullpen in August. Injuries led to him missing the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He was back on the mound last year but his velocity was down and he posted a 6.51 earned run average on the year.<\/p>\n

Whether he can turn things around and get back on track is anyone\u2019s guess. He will be further removed from his lengthy injury odyssey but the results in 2025 weren\u2019t encouraging. The Astros may have a six-man rotation for a decent amount of 2026. McCullers projects to be in there with Hunter Brown<\/a>, Cristian Javier<\/a>, Tatsuya Imai<\/a>, Mike Burrows<\/a> and Ryan Weiss<\/a>, with guys like Nate Pearson<\/a>, Spencer Arrighetti<\/a>, AJ Blubaugh<\/a>, Miguel Ullola<\/a>, Jason Alexander<\/a>, Colton Gordon<\/a> and Kai-Wei Teng<\/a> also on the roster. Over the course of the season, Ronel Blanco<\/a>, Hayden Wesneski<\/a> and Brandon Walter<\/a> will be trying to come back from Tommy John surgeries performed in 2025. McCullers is going into the final season of the extension he signed in 2021 and will be paid $17MM this year.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros have seemingly had too many infielders all winter but general manager Dana Brown has consistently downplayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[17653,109685,39190,84731,40898,69753,363,99],"class_list":["post-452867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-cam-smith","tag-christian-walker","tag-isaac-paredes","tag-jake-meyers","tag-jesus-sanchez","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}