The Astros also have seven starting pitchers on the IL, though Brown seemed encouraged enough by some of their rehab work to move offense ahead of an arm on his priority list. Right-hander Cristian Javier, who underwent Tommy John surgery last year, made his third minor-league rehab start Thursday. Fellow righty Spencer Arrighetti is nearing his second, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cCross your fingers and hope nothing else happens, but injuries happen, so I\u2019m always thinking about pitching,\u201d Brown said before Thursday\u2019s game against the Athletics. \u201cWhen I\u2019m talking to other clubs, if there\u2019s a possibility to get a starter, I\u2019ll take a starter. I\u2019m always in the market for a starter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, I\u2019m really locked in on the bat. If we can get a bat, it would be really good for this team, particularly a left-handed bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acquiring a pitcher and a position player is still feasible, Brown said, but the third-year GM made it clear \u201cthe priority is getting some more offense.\u201d Getting both could be complicated by the Astros\u2019 lack of top-end prospect capital and Brown\u2019s revelation Thursday that it \u201cwouldn\u2019t be our preference\u201d to trade off of the major-league roster.<\/p>\n
Paredes\u2019 injury left Houston without five of the nine players from its Opening Day lineup. Two of them, Paredes and center fielder Jake Meyers, are expected to have extended absences that could stretch into at least mid or late August. Meyers is amid a breakout season in which he trails only All-Star shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a for the team lead in batting average and on-base percentage.<\/p>\n
Pe\u00f1a, the team\u2019s leader in almost every offensive category, fractured his left rib June 27 and still has not started a minor-league rehab assignment. Designated hitter Yordan Alvarez hasn\u2019t played since May 2 and has already suffered two setbacks during his recovery from a fractured right hand.<\/p>\n
Paredes\u2019 and Pe\u00f1a\u2019s absences mean the Astros are playing without the entire left side of their infield. Meyers is the team\u2019s starting center fielder and is regarded as one of the sport\u2019s premier defenders. Second base has also been in flux all season after Jose Altuve accepted a position switch to left field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be choosy,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou have to take whichever one comes, and we\u2019ll take whichever one comes. If we can get an infielder, great. If we can get an outfielder, great. But the priority is the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2225863790-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
An All-Star in 2025, Ryan O\u2019Hearn has put up a 134 OPS+ over 88 games for the Baltimore Orioles.<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s substitute-laden lineup has still posted a .761 OPS and scored 4.6 runs per game since Alvarez last appeared, but whether that success is sustainable is a legitimate question. Even with a full-strength roster, the Astros need balance.<\/p>\n
No major-league lineup has had fewer plate appearances by a left-handed hitter than Houston\u2019s. As a result, its right-handed-heavy bunch has taken a major-league-low 684 plate appearances against left-handed pitching.<\/p>\n
Either of the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 left-handed-hitting rental outfielders \u2014 Cedric Mullins or Ryan O\u2019Hearn \u2014 is an obvious fit for Houston\u2019s roster. So is Colorado Rockies outfielder Mickey Moniak or Chicago White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman. The Tampa Bay Rays are showing no interest in moving left-handed-hitting second baseman Brandon Lowe, who has been a popular name among Astros fans.<\/p>\n
Acquiring O\u2019Hearn or Mullins would put the Astros perilously close to crossing the luxury tax for a second consecutive season, something the team has never done during Jim Crane\u2019s ownership tenure.<\/p>\n
Earlier this season, multiple team sources indicated Crane wanted to stay under the luxury tax. Brown even acknowledged in April that trading reliever Rafael Montero to the Atlanta Braves had financial motivations. Sending setup man Ryan Pressly to the Chicago Cubs this winter seemed like a pure salary dump, too.<\/p>\n
Crane, however, has been known to buck his precedent during the trade deadline. He authorized blockbusters for Justin Verlander in 2017 and Zack Greinke in 2019, both of which took the Astros\u2019 payroll to new heights.<\/p>\n
Asked Thursday whether Crane would be comfortable crossing the luxury tax this season, Brown replied, \u201cJim is very committed to spending money when it comes to winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (Crane) understands that if we continue to play well, we\u2019re going to make it to the postseason with a chance to win this division and go deep again, especially when guys start coming back,\u201d Brown said. \u201cJim has always been supportive, and I think he\u2019ll do whatever we need to do to get better at the deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo of manager Joe Espada: Chris Coduto \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 With a major-league-high nine position players on the injured list \u2014 some of whom are weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2382,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-90273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-houston-astros","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114911627376428031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90273","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=90273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}