In a baseball offseason dominated by the Mitchell Report, Roger Clemens and other steroid allegations, the Houston Astros have quietly been revamping their roster.
Ed Wade, the team’s new general manager, formerly of the Philadelphia Phillies, has been making trades and signing free agents in an effort to get Houston back to the World Series.
The team will play its first season in 20 years without longtime Astros future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, who retired after last season. Cecil Cooper, who became the Astros interim manager after they fired Phil Garner last season, now resumes full managerial duties as the ballclub’s lead man.
The first offseason move for Wade was acquiring speedy outfielder Reggie Abercrombie off of waivers from the Marlins in hopes of adding speed to the position.
About one month later the team sent struggling closer Brad Lidge and utility infielder Eric Bruntlett to the Philadelphia Phillies for center fielder Michael Bourn, a UH product, third baseman Michael Costanzo and relief pitcher Geoff Geary.
Wade continued to make moves trading young outfielder Josh Anderson to the Atlanta Braves for Oscar Villarreal to give the bullpen some depth. They also signed Yordany Ramirez, a free-agent outfielder, and brought back former Astro Geoff Blum as a utility infielder, signing both to one-year deals.
As December came upon us, the Astros front office was not done improving the team. The team signed established second basemen Kazuo Matsui to a three-year contract worth $16.5 million.
Then, a few days before the Mitchell Report came out, the Astros made a blockbuster trade, acquiring former MVP shortstop Miguel Tejada for five players including outfielder Luke Scott, recently acquired third basemen Costanzo and young pitchers Troy Patton, Matt Albers and Dennis Sarfate. Tejada was later named in the Mitchell Report.
To fill the void at the closer position, the team made a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks, acquiring Jose Valverde, the league’s leader in saves a year ago, for underachieving infielder Chris Burke and pitchers Chad Qualls and Juan Gutierrez.
Though all the moves the Astros have made this offseason should improve the team, they still have to play 162 games this season.
