The Astros won the AL West yet again. OK, only by tiebreaker, and only by winning 90 games, the fewest the team has won since 2016.
Of course, we know the injuries: Altuve, Alvarez, and Urquidy out for large chunks. No McCullers, Almost no Garcia.
But as the Astros struggled to regain the kind of dominance we’ve come to expect here in Houston, much of the ire about the team’s diminished production has been pointed at three players: Joe Abreu, Cristian Javier, and Rafael Montero. These three players were signed to expensive long-term contracts, so the ire wasn’t just about their 2023 performances but how their contracts would affect the Astros’ success in the long term.