Jimmy

Paredes

Paredes has been dealing with left wrist inflammation since winter ball in January. “We’re going to have to monitor him real close,” said Astros manager Brad Mills. “He’s still a ways away.” Paredes batted .286/.320/.393 with two homers, 18 RBI, five stolen bases and a .713 OPS over 179 plate appearances at the the major league level last season. Barring any setbacks, the 23-year-old will compete Chris Johnson and Brett Wallace for the starting third base job this spring.

Chris Johnson seems poises to take the third-base job away from Paredes. Paredes projected to be one of the game’s worst regulars anyway, and more Triple-A time would likely do him some good.

Paredes came to camp hoping to win the third base job, but he batted just .190/.190/.238 while Chris Johnson thrived at the plate. The Astros will play him at second base at Triple-A, but his best chance at a long-term role might be as a utilityman.

Wallace is in the mix for playing time at third, not so much at first, but he was back at last year’s position today. He’s 5-for-18 with a couple of walks this spring, while Jimmy Paredes, who is projected to start at third base for Houston, is 3-for-15 with no extra-base hits and no walks.

Paredes just recently began hitting from the left side of the plate after dealing with left wrist inflammation. The 23-year-old is slated to compete with Chris Johnson and Brett Wallace for the starting third base job after batting .286/.320/.393 with two homers, 18 RBI, five stolen bases and a .713 OPS over 179 plate appearances at the the major league level last season.

“We’d love to have Clint back,” Wade said. “It’s going to be a case of trying to see whether it fits for us economically as we go forward. It’s something that’s more apt to be dealt with after the ownership situation is resolved.” A Type B free agent, Barmes had a nice year in the field and belted 12 homers over 446 at-bats. But, he’s just a .252/.302/.401 hitter in his career, so we can’t imagine the 32-year-old will be terribly expensive. The ‘Stros might decide they’re better off giving Jimmy Paredes a shot, though.

The ‘Stros would like to re-sign Clint Barmes, but he’s likely to command more money than they can afford to give him. Paredes didn’t play shortstop at all last season but has played a total of 24 games there in the minors. The soon-to-be 23-year-old is a great athlete and his ability to swipe a bag makes him an intriguing late-round fantasy option, especially if he could eventually gain shortstop eligibility.

Paredes played third base last year after Chris Johnson was demoted, but he switched over to second base in the spring. However, he is currently blocked by Jose Altuve at the major league level. “I think Jimmy is athletic enough to play any position,” said Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow. Given we made the move back to second at the beginning of the year, we didn’t know how Jose was going to develop and now we’re looking at a 22-year-old All-Star second baseman who’s going to be with us for a while.” Paredes, a 23-year-old switch hitter, is batting .318/.344/.462 with eight home runs, 42 RBI, 28 stolen bases and an .807 OPS in 86 games with Triple-A Oklahoma City this year.

“We’re hoping right now at one of the corner spots he should be OK,” Astros interim manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “The transition from infield to outfield is not as easy as some people think. Routes and angles are all different for him. We feel eventually he’ll transition into a top center fielder.” Paredes was batting .318 with 13 homers, 59 RBI and 37 stolen bases at Triple-A Oklahoma City before his recall Monday. He should have some NL-only value down the stretch.

Paredes has registered a cool .318/.348/.477 batting line with 13 home runs and 59 RBI in 124 games this season at the Triple-A level. He is capable of playing all around the diamond and should be plenty active down the stretch for this historically bad Astros club.