![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2279516386-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHOUSTON \u2014 Misery loves company, a cliche the Houston Astros can cling to during this upcoming nine-game stretch. All of their opponents are American League teams who entered Monday with a worse record than Houston\u2019s 30-37 mark.<\/p>\n
No better time exists for this injury-ravaged team to build and sustain serious momentum. Since falling 11 games below .500 on May 20, the Astros have won 10 of 16 games. Getting to .500 by the All-Star break may feel far-fetched, but should be an attainable goal.<\/p>\n
Jose Altuve\u2019s remarkable recovery from a Grade 2 oblique strain has their lineup as close to full strength as it can be. Yordan Alvarez is atop the American League MVP leaderboard and conjuring Triple Crown conversations. The pitching staff has stabilized. So has chatter around the job statuses of both general manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada.<\/p>\n
As this soft portion of the schedule begins, here are six things I think about the Astros and their path forward.<\/p>\n
1. I think the Astros will tout themselves as trade deadline buyers until the bitter end. Even if standings and season-long trends suggest otherwise, this is the only answer that will keep a clubhouse intact and invigorated. Expecting Dana Brown, a general manager in the final year of his contract, to publicly concede defeat during a tenure-defining season is delusional.<\/p>\n
Playing in a pedestrian American League affords Brown and the Astros that luxury. So does the impending return of ace Hunter Brown, who will make his fourth minor-league rehab start on Wednesday night for Triple-A Sugar Land. It should be his last before reassuming his role atop the Astros\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n
Presuming Hunter Brown returns sometime during next week\u2019s series against his hometown Detroit Tigers, which begins on June 15, it will give the Astros around 38 games at almost full-strength before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
That stretch could determine myriad things: the extent to which Houston will buy, whether buying is prudent at all or which pieces to dangle in potential selling scenarios. Through it all, the public refrain will remain the same.<\/p>\n
2. If the Astros are buyers, I think their biggest need is obvious. The Astros\u2019 outfield began this six-game road trip with a .301 on-base percentage. Only three outfields in franchise history have finished with a lower one: the 1964 Colt .45\u2019s, along with the 2012 and 2013 Astros \u2014 two teams that combined to lose 218 games.<\/p>\n
Entering Monday, only three outfields in baseball had produced a lower OPS than Houston\u2019s. Just one, the Miami Marlins, has a higher strikeout rate. Brown has already optioned his one offseason outfield addition, Joey Loperfido, to the minor leagues while cycling through a never-ending carousel of names.<\/p>\n
Nine players have started in left field across the Astros\u2019 first 67 games. Six different center fielders have played during that stretch. Cam Smith is a constant in right, but he boasts a .670 OPS after his first 252 plate appearances. Smith\u2019s superb defense is the sole reason Houston\u2019s outfield isn\u2019t lower in wins above replacement leaderboards.<\/p>\n
Finding more stability around Smith \u2014 preferably from someone who hits left-handed \u2014 will be Brown\u2019s foremost goal before Aug. 3. It is the same one he broadcast throughout the winter. Not accomplishing it feels like the biggest blemish on an offseason Brown needed to nail.<\/p>\n
3. I don\u2019t think Yordan Alvarez will be traded. But, when other teams inquire, it would be malpractice for the Astros not to listen \u2014 even if they maintain their position as buyers.<\/p>\n
Alvarez is baseball\u2019s best hitter and is becoming a favorite to win the American League MVP. The prospect haul Houston would receive for him could revitalize its fallow farm system. It would also signal the beginning of a rebuild that owner Jim Crane has vowed will never happen under his watch.<\/p>\n
Crane has long maintained that the Astros\u2019 championship window \u201cwill always be open\u201d during his ownership tenure. Trading Alvarez would run counter to this claim. Bear in mind, too, that Alvarez is playing on the second-biggest contract Crane has ever given out.<\/p>\n
That fact alone makes any potential trade of Alvarez an ownership-level decision. It\u2019s difficult to envision Crane doing an about-face on the declaration that has come to define his tenure.<\/p>\n
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\n Jeremy Pe\u00f1a is eligible to become a free agent after the 2027 season. (Tim Warner \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n