The Hole in Center Field
There was a time that the Houston Astros were a center fielder producing machine. In the 2022 postseason, four of the six AL postseason teams featured a starting center fielder who broke into the bigs with Houston. George Springer (2014) in Toronto, Myles Straw (2018) in Cleveland, Jose Siri (2021) in Tampa Bay, and of course Chas McCormick (2021) in Houston.
The 2021 Houston Astros were so flush with center fielders even after losing George Springer to free agency, that James Click purportedly traded starter Straw to get McCormick, who Dusty Baker didn’t play as frequently, more playing time, as well to be able to call up Jake Meyers from AAA. Still, by the end of the season, Dusty was finding starts for yet another center fielder prospect in Siri.
A center fielder producing machine.
That’s not the case anymore. Center fielders are dropping like flies on the 2026 Houston Astros. Opening day center fielder Meyers went to the IL on April 10 with an oblique strain. Sunday, Joey Loperfido, his understudy, joined him on the IL with a right quad strain. Taylor Trammell, called up from AAA when Meyers went to the IL, suffered a left groin injury in yesterday’s win against Cleveland, and will “be out for a little bit.”
Zach Cole is out indefinitely with a broken toe from an HBP in the minors on April 1.
Brice Matthews, an infielder who just started playing center field for the first time at the end of last year’s AAA season, is now the de facto starting center fielder for the Houston Astros. To his left will be Cam Smith, a converted third baseman in right field. (And if this were last year, on his right might be second baseman Jose Altuve in left.)
Here’s who is on the Astros 40 man roster with MLB center field experience now:
| Name | MLB CF Starts in Career |
|---|---|
| Brice Matthews | 1 |
| Dustin Harris | 3 |
That’s it. That’s the entirety of MLB center field experience on the Astros 40-man roster right now that isn’t injured. Nobody else even has minor league experience at center field. Brice has 8 CF starts in the minors. Harris has some more experience, with 119 CF starts in the minors, but still it’s not great to have Harris as an everyday bat.
Dana Brown is going to have to make some moves, but for right now, welcome to the Brice Matthews: Center Fielder show.
Rookie Duel: Weiss vs Messick
Having taken the first game of the series, the Astros look to keep it going in Cleveland as they send Ryan Weiss back to the mound for his second start of the season. He last only 3.2 innings last time, but gave up only 2 earned runs. What the Astros really need is some length from their starters, as very few starters have been able to complete 5 innings, let alone provide a quality start.
Cleveland sends Parker Messick, a left handed pitcher drafted in the 2nd round in 2022. Messick debuted last year in the majors, but still maintains rookie status for 2026. If he continues to pitch like he has over his first 3 starts, he will certainly be the AL rookie of the year conversation. In 4 starts, he is 3-0 across 25.2 innings, and has allowed only 3 runs on the season. He has struck out 25 while walking just 7, with a 0.78 WHIP.
While not a fireballer, his fastball sits aroudn 93 mph, his stuff is quite effective.
In his last start, he took a no-hitter into the 9th inning before giving up a single.
Astros @ Guardians Game Information and Gamethread Details
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Center field help comes in the from of (checks tweet) Daniel Johnson
Here’s his baseball reference page:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnsda07.shtml
He’s got 8 CF starts in MLB, so already we’ve increased on 40 man experience by 200%.
Weiss, while lucky to have his arm available, inspires me less and less. The lack of controlling the zone and without a put-away pitch makes the 2-strike counts that grt away from him nauseating. I was excited about him, but at this point, I wish Ullola hadn’t rolled his ankle. Ullola was starting to control the zone this season better than ever and it’s disappointing that we will wonder if 4.1 innings is a reasonable over/under.
Weiss wasn’t walking so many batters in KBO the last 2 years (2.8 BB9), but KBO hitters may be less disciplined. His 10 walks in 14.1 IP so far this year seems to more in line with his AAA 5.2 BB9 rate. His KBO BB9 aligns more with how he fared in AA (2.4 BB9), which matches what people estimate the level of competition in KBO to be.
Weiss came over with the classic Astros pitching style (high fastball at the top of the zone paired with a slider that starts on the same plane and drops). And his K rate is quite good (over 11 K/9). I theorize that this type of pitcher is affected the most by the ABS strike zone which on average has a significantly lower top of the zoned. Maybe that accounts for the high walk rate (over 6 BB/9), who knows?
would that reflect already over 14 innings? How many abs challenges could weiss have faced? (actually, i’m not even sure where to look that up quickly.)
Unless you mean that there’s already been a change in hitter’s approaches towards that pitching style because of the underlying abs, or that it’s forced a change in weiss’ approach.
The ABS strike zone is different than the strike zone called by umpires last year. I’m not referring to the challenges but rather the way that pitchers and umpires have to change the zones they call because they are aware the ABS zone is smaller. The ABS zone is based on a uniform percentage based on the player’s height. On average this is about 3 inches lower at the top of the zone, compared to last year. If the pitcher throws a strike at the top of the zone, it’s likely to be more hittable, and a ball thrown in their previous normal location for the high FB strike is now a ball.. (I still intend on writing an article about this.) Maybe I will wait until after Weiss’ start.
I’m very curious to read it. (is this why our pitching has sucked? well, probably one of many reasons.)
I knew we needed some OF help, but I wasn’t aware the lack of CF experience was that bad.
Hoo boy, Brice Matthews has to drink from the fire hose.
I know I’m reaching to find positives, but if you squint, you could see some good things from Harris in yesterday’s game. He looks to be pretty speedy in both LF and RF, and provided decent defense. He showed off a pretty good arm throwing out the runner at 2d base. He also seems to have a patient approach and can draw walks. He has had some hard hit balls but not hits with the Astros. The fact that he has played some CF in the minors could be helpful.
I went to MLB.com to check on the game and saw the headline “Angel Martinez throws Yordan Alvarez out after challenge.” I was thinking the umpire was resurrected from the retired and I had a few heart palpitations.
Then I realized it was Angel Hernandez and that I’m just a stupid gringo.