Astros Telling Slugger to Dial Things Back

usatsi_21625455

The Houston Astros enter the upcoming 2024 season with expectations to compete for, and win, another World Series championship.

Their superstar outfielder already generated some excitement after giving a bold prediction about the current state of the team.

Much of this optimism started to build after the Astros aggressively pursued, and ultimately signed, Josh Hader to create one of the best backend bullpens in Major League Baseball.

The lineup is already well established with stars littered throughout the order.

Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker will steal the majority of the attention, but Jeremy Pena could have a bounce back season after tweaking some things with his swing.

Houston is also hoping the late-half version of Jose Abreu shows up all year.

His tenure got off to a rocky start, going on a homer-less drought of 260 at-bats, which was his career-long.

Abreu also had the worst offensive season of his career, putting together his worst slash line and lowest OPS+ of his 10 Major League seasons.

However, the 2020 AL MVP showcased the hitting ability that landed him a three-year, $58.5 million deal from the Astros in November 2022. He closed with a slash line of .250/.325/.558, eight home runs and 31 RBI from Aug. 28 to the end of the season.

In the playoffs, he improved even more, with a slashing .295/.354/.591 with four homers and 13 RBI across 11 games.

To get the most out of the star slugger, Houston is telling him to dial things back a bit.

“… He has to monitor his volume and what he does prior to the game and how many swings he takes. I think he’s got a better feel of how to go about it and he made some adjustments in his offseason workouts. He’s in a really good place right now,” manager Joe Espada said according to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.

Abreu is known for his intense work ethic that has him constantly grinding in the batting cage.

But, at 37 years old, it might be time to change that approach.

He suffered a back injury last year that caused him to miss time. Maybe some of that was due to overworking himself.

With a healthy and productive Abreu in this lineup, there really are no holes for pitchers to exploit.

That is scary for anyone to think about as the Astros get ready for the 2024 season.