Three Key Storylines That Shaped the Houston Astros’ 2025 Season

The Houston Astros faced a lot of adversity in 2025, let's take a quick look back.

Mike Watters-Imagn Images

The year of 2025 has sunsetted and MLB fans everywhere are looking forward to a fresh start with the change of the calendar. The Houston Astros will look back on the past season as one of the most unusual in recent franchise history. The campaign was shaped by three major forces: a shocking end, season-long injury battles, and offensive struggles.

Ending the Postseason Streak

Astros fans have been able to count on being in the postseason like clockwork for nearly a decade. Everything changed in 2025.

For the first time since 2016, Houston failed to make the MLB playoffs. The Astros were still respectable when they finished the 2025 season with a 87-75 record, but it wasn't good enough.

After coming off of multiple AL West crowns and deep finishes in October runs, the finish was unexpected and quite honestly even shocking but the writing was on the wall with the way the team's season went.

Injuries to Key Pieces Altered the Season

Yordan Alvarez | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

There were times throughout the season that Houston's injury report was almost unbelievable. Complete disruption is how the effect of injuries could be explained.

Superstar Yordan Alvarez missed nearly 100 games due to two different injuries throughout the year. The offense took a massive blow with his absence.

The pitching squad couldn't catch a break with injuries. Key contributors spent time on the injured list. Young and lesser-known arms had to step up to the plate. The lineup and rotation couldn't gain any consistency with the constant changes over the long season.

Offensive Underperformance

As recently reported and analyzed, the Astros ranked dead last in the MLB in average exit velocity, while also only putting up an average of 4.23 runs per game. While it is really easy to argue about how injuries added to the meltdown, these stats also show that they just weren't hitting well either.

Many of the team's usual hitters underperformed all season. With parts of the lineup healthy, veterans failed to provide the offensive moves needed to carry the team when others were injured.

The ultimate combination of injuries and an underwhelming offense cost Houston wins at crucial times throughout the season.

Looking Forward to 2026

Framber Valdez | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

There are many reasons to be optimistic about the ballclub heading into 2026. The first assumption has to be that the team can find some luck in the injury department. With the main core of the team largely intact, and with the notable additions of Mike Burrows, NIck Allen and Ryan Weiss the team is making some moves.

It is almost a foregone conclusion that Framber Valdez will be leaving in free agency and while he has been controversial at time. His absence will be substantial without Houston making some more transactions in free agency.

General manager Dana Brown will need to find more consistent power and back that up with a solid rotation to get the club back to the expectations of the past.

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