Snitker and Cintr\u00f3n shared hitting coach duties for the past seven seasons, a stretch in which Houston\u2019s lineup led the American League in OPS, batting average and on-base percentage while preaching a \u201cpass the baton\u201d mentality built upon putting the ball in play. Houston\u2019s 19.6 percent strikeout rate since 2019 is the lowest in baseball.<\/p>\n
The Astros won three American League pennants, one World Series and appeared in the playoffs six times while Snitker and Cintr\u00f3n oversaw the offense.<\/p>\n
Failing to reach the postseason in 2025 spelled doom for both coaches, who are the sacrificial lambs for a franchise that finds itself in unfamiliar territory. The Astros missed the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons, prompting general manager Dana Brown to promise \u201ca complete look at all of our operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last winter, Brown said he met with both Cintr\u00f3n and Snitker after Brown believed the Astros \u201cgot away\u201d from their collective offensive approach. The 2024 lineup saw a major-league low 3.64 pitches per plate appearance, had baseball\u2019s second-highest chase rate and, after the All-Star break, scored just 283 runs. Fourteen offenses scored more.<\/p>\n
Among the points Brown said he emphasized last winter to Cintr\u00f3n and Snitker were seeing more pitches and \u201cbeing a little bit more patient, and aggressive in zone, not so much aggressive out of the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, Brown traded outfielder Kyle Tucker and allowed free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman to sign with the Boston Red Sox, robbing the offense of two players who could\u2019ve helped the efforts.<\/p>\n
In response, the 2025 Astros boasted baseball\u2019s second-highest chase rate and saw the third-fewest pitches per plate appearance of any lineup in the sport. Houston scored three or fewer runs in 82 of its 162 games while sporting a .719 OPS that ranked lower than any of Cintr\u00f3n and Snitker\u2019s past six offenses.<\/p>\n
![\"Troy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/USATSI_25802416-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Troy Snitker, seen here with outfielder Cam Smith, is the son of former Braves manager Brian Snitker. (Troy Taormina \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Significant injuries to Isaac Paredes, Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pe\u00f1a contributed to the decline. Paredes, in particular, was acquired in the Tucker trade for his patience and ability to work at-bats.<\/p>\n
The pull-happy third baseman led baseball by seeing 4.46 pitches per plate appearance in 2024. In 2025, he appeared in just 102 games, sidelined for most of the second half by a strained right hamstring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Paredes went down, we started seeing less pitches per at-bat, I think that\u2019s going to be a big focus for us: that you have to hunt your pitch, stick with hunting your pitch and get to more two-strike counts to make the pitcher work a little bit harder,\u201d Brown said last week. \u201cI think the fact we chased a little bit early, I think our guys were pressing a little bit because we had guys missing in the lineup and we tried to do too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ignoring the attrition when assessing the Astros\u2019 impotent offense is impossible. Alvarez appeared in just 48 games after hand and ankle injuries. Pe\u00f1a, who made his first All-Star team this season, missed significant time with a rib fracture and oblique strain. Breakout center fielder Jake Meyers missed two months with a calf injury.<\/p>\n
More concerning, though, is the collection of similar offensive profiles that produced the trends Brown despises. Pe\u00f1a, Yainer Diaz, Christian Walker, Cam Smith, Mauricio Dub\u00f3n and Jose Altuve all have top-50 swing rates in the sport. Diaz, Dub\u00f3n, Altuve and Pe\u00f1a all boast chase rates of at least 35.3 percent. Walker\u2019s spiked from 24.2 percent last season to 28.4 percent in this one.<\/p>\n
Walker, Altuve, Pe\u00f1a, Smith and Diaz took the most plate appearances on the team this season. Dub\u00f3n contributed 490 of his own. A slew of free-swinging, chasing players produced predictable results, posing a question that Brown had to weigh this winter: Is this a personnel or philosophy problem?<\/p>\n
Three months remain to render an answer about personnel. Thursday offered a resounding response to the philosophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An offensive overhaul is underway for the Houston Astros, who are jettisoning longtime hitting coaches Troy Snitker and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,2382,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-290858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-astros","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115347613512776607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}