We’re 120 games into the 2026 season, here is where the Houston Astros rank in the AL following offensive categories:
| Stat | Value | HOU AL rank |
|---|---|---|
| BA | .223 | 15th |
| OBP | .301 | 15th |
| wOBA | .303 | 15th |
| Off | -8.4 | 15th |
| wRC+ | 94 | 14th |
| K% | 25.5 | 14th |
Miraculously, the Astros outfield is 9th in fWAR, but only because they rank 3rd in Def in the AL. Nonetheless, a dead last offensive outfield is not a recipe to win a division down the stretch.
But they’ve thrown everything they could find in the outfield this season, and little has worked.
| Name | PA | wOBA | wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yordan Alvarez | 79 | .547 | 264 |
| LaMonte Wade, Jr. | 68 | .344 | 122 |
| Taylor Trammell | 169 | .341 | 120 |
| Cam Smith | 426 | .301 | 92 |
| Joey Loperfido | 109 | .280 | 78 |
| Jake Meyers | 145 | .279 | 77 |
| Zach Dezenzo | 68 | .275 | 74 |
| Dustin Harris | 35 | .266 | 68 |
| Daulton Varsho | 25 | .265 | 70 |
| Zach Cole | 50 | .248 | 55 |
| Brice Matthews | 160 | .247 | 54 |
| Daniel Johnson | 17 | .230 | 44 |
| Lucas Spence | 41 | .208 | 27 |
| Shay Whitcomb | 2 | .000 | -100 |
Look at those wRC+’s. If this were Forrest Gump, the Greenbow County Central School principal would be telling us about how our boys are… different, and they’re going to have to go to a “special” league.
In the Astros’ 14 years in the AL, they’ve ranked last or 2nd last in the AL only twice before: 2013 when they lost 111 games, and 2016, the only year in the 2015-2024 decade where they missed the postseason.
Dana Brown was with the Braves when they were middling and their outfield took a serious blow in potency when Ronald Acuna, Jr. suffered a season ending knee injury. Braves GM Alex Anthopolous made some Hail Mary trades to get himself an outfield at the deadline trading for Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler, and he was rewarded with a World Series championship.
I get the sense that Dana Brown was trying to do something similar for the 2026 Astros, but with more limited resources, so what he ended up with was Daulton Varsho at the trade deadline and Nelson Velazquez from the waiver wire.
Velazquez has a nice enough bat. Both his 2026 and career wRC+ is 98. He had a year with a 133 wRC+ with the Cubs and Royals before he registered a wRC+ of just 78 in 2024, resigning him to play in the Mexican Leagues in 2025. He projects just to platoon against LHP, against whom he carries a career .739 OPS, but he rates negatively defensively, so you have to wonder if the Astros didn’t just trade for a right-handed Jesus Sanchez.
42 games left. Anything can happen, and the AL West is like a box of chocolates…
Astros @ Giants Game Information and Gamethread Details
There’s reason to be optimistic for today’s game because the Astros’ ace Hunter Brown is starting. Unfortunately, according to MLB.com, the opposing starting pitcher is a “TBD” and man, “TBD” kills Houston.
Seriously though, Yahoo! MLB has the starter listed as Carson Whisenhunt, a second year right handed pitcher still in his rookie eligibility, who has started 5 games this season, and not well. He carries a 7.25 ERA with a 1.84 WHIP, and still somehow has a 2-3 record with those numbers. He’s struck out 20 and walked 15 in his 22.1 innings of work this season.
The game will be broadcast at 8:45 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
This post will be updated with starting lineup as they are made available.
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How did we get to this situation with the OF? Can’t blame injuries.
I think the astros probably approached the season feeling like 2 of the 3 OF positions were set and good. RF would be Cam’s, and I know Cam is very polarizing among astros fans, but I’ve been fine with 2026 Cam for the most part. Good defense, xOPS >.750 and it seems like he’s still getting better.
and I think they thought they were set in CF with Jake. But Jake wasn’t that great and he got injured, and then was even worse after he came back from injury.
left field, i feel like they just had a whole bunch of darts and they were gonna throw them all against the wall and figure one would stick, whether it be one of the zachs, or loperfido, or brice. Clack even wrote a piece early in the season about “the rookie outfielders”. like they jake, they all missed and they all got injured at points too.
So it seems like a combination of overestimating what they had (jake, cam) and just a whole bunch of darts missing. and also injuries helped with jake not coming through and the darts missing.
I will say that the crappy outfield situation wouldn’t even be that big an issue if not for the spectacular pitching failure in April by the rotation and pitching staff as a whole that set the team back SO Far. Astros are still 1st in the division somehow on august 11. But if there was even mildly competent pitching in april, they could be first with like a 6 game lead, and a lot more comfortable.
And we wouldn’t care so much about how bad the outfield has been because the infield has picked up most of the slack. The outfield is 2nd worst in the AL for wRC+. Collectively, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, DH is #1 in all MLB for wRC. (Okay, so Yordan is doing most of that work with the DH spot, but even just 1B/2B/3B/SS, the astros are #3 in the AL in wRC+.)
Every team has holes but if the other parts of the team can adequately compensate, you dont notice them as much. but when the other parts cant compensate enough for the holes, then you notice all the holes.
Somebody in discord said that maybe next year Correa could play outfield to mitigate the OF issues. seems like kind of a waste of a former platinum glover, but he’s older and maybe it would be less taxing on him than playing 3B/SS. And this team loooooves taking infielders and turning them into outfielders.
Well that was a short stay for Jake…