Houston Astros Bullpen Targets During Free Agency
One of the things that was a little off with the Houston Astros this season was that their bullpen wasn't as dominant as it had been last year.
They were a shutdown unit in 2022, posting the best ERA of 2.80 in the regular season and a ridiculous 0.83 ERA across 13 games.
That changed in 2023.
The Astros' bullpen recorded the sixth-best ERA of 3.56 during the regular season, but ballooned up to a third-worst ERA of 3.99 across 11 playoff games.
Heading into an offseason needing to upgrade the relief staff is not foreign to Houston.
They had a middling unit in 2021 that had an ERA of 4.06 before their changes heading into 2022 produced the best bullpen in the MLB.
A similar strategy could be used during this offseason as two of their relievers, Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek, are set to hit free agency and Hector Neris could opt-out of his contract.
It's likely that the Astros will have at least one of these players back.
But, if they want to revamp their bullpen, they have a few different options.
Houston could bank on upside of young talent and develop them in their system.
Jordan Hicks and Shintaro Fujinami would be great pieces for that route.
Both players are fireball throwers that have command issues. They have great stuff that, if controlled, could become weapons for the Astros.
They're both under 30-years-old right now and could be signed to multi-year contracts in free agency.
If Houston wants to add veterans to their bullpen, they could look to journeyman lefties Matt Moore and Will Smith.
Outside of Josh Hader, this isn't a class full of prized free agents.
That could present the front office a challenge to completely makeover this unit outside of being aggressive in the trade market.
The Astros should bank on the upside of young arms and pursue both Hicks and Fujinami in free agency to increase the overall level of talent in their bullpen.
