Houston

Astros

Trammell got the Astros on the board with a two-run double in the fourth inning, trimming their deficit to two runs at 4-2. While he’s in camp as a non-roster invitee, given their current outfield mix, Trammell seemingly has a strong shot at earning a bench spot on the team’s Opening Day roster provided he shows well in Grapefruit League play.

The bulk of the damage done against him came on a three-run blast by Luis García Jr. in the third inning. It wasn’t all bad for Arrighetti though, as he racked up four strikeouts in the outing and made it through without experiencing any lingering elbow issues. His velocity on his fastball checked in at 93.3 mph, which is +0.2 mph from where he sat during the 2025 season. It looks like he has plenty of time to get himself ready before Opening Day, so anticipate Arrighetti having a spot in the Astros’ rotation to begin the season.

The 32-year-old right-hander needed just eight pitches to retire CJ Abrams, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews in succession. He worked exclusively out of the stretch in this one and averaged 94.0 mph on his fastball, a big jump from the 91.5 mph that he averaged during the 2025 season. It remains to be seen if he’ll be given an opportunity to start or if he’ll be utilized out of the bullpen to open the season. Either way, a return to relevance from a fantasy perspective seems unlikely.

After an injury-plagued 2025 season, Alvarez is slated to start the majority of games at designated hitter, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see him in the outfield. “Yordan likes to play left field, and that balance is important to keep,” Espada said on MLB Network. “He likes to go out to left field and put some at-bats behind him and go focus on something else defensively, and we’re going to do that. And also, by doing that, it allows us to DH some other veteran players that we will need to get off their feet.” How many games Alvarez plays in the outfield is anybody’s guess, but his having outfield eligibility in fantasy leagues would be big, as would getting extra at-bats for Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker at DH.

Yohel Pozo homered off him. Gordon spent about half of his rookie season in the Astros’ rotation, going 6-4 with a 5.34 ERA in 14 starts and six relief appearances. He’s not a threat to be part of this year’s season-opening group unless injuries strike, but he is jockeying for position with the team’s other fallbacks.

Janek, the Astros’ first-round pick two years ago, is 3-for-5 with a double, three walks and four steals this spring. Last year, he was 30-for-32 stealing bases in High-A ball, so even though his bat remains something of a question mark, he’s an intriguing fantasy prospect as he aims to become a starting catcher in the bigs a couple of years down the line.

He took a liner from Marcus Semien off the leg, but recovered to force Bo Bichette to ground into an inning-ending double play. Imai topped out at 94.7 miles per hour and was credited with only throwing a change-up and a sinker, though he claimed after the game he had also thrown some sliders. Through an interpreter, Imai said that the plan was for him to throw just one inning and that his leg is fine. Imai looks to be a fine SP dart throw at the end of mixed league drafts.

He’s continued to play catch after biceps inflammation sprung up in early February, but the fact that we’re now almost in March and Hader doesn’t really seem to be progressing is ominous. Fantasy managers that draft Hader — and at this point we’d continue to break tier ties against Hader — should consider pursuing Bryan Abreu as a contingency plan later in their drafts.

He’ll likely be managed with a lot of DH time this season, but it’s a good sign to see Alvarez ready to go before we get too deep into spring training. Our last update on him was that he was completely pain free, so fantasy managers shouldn’t have any reservations about drafting him early based on what we currently know. He’s still coming at a slight discount after last year’s 48-game injury-plagued debacle of a season.

Trammell is off to a 4-for-8 start as he tries to win back a spot on Houston’s roster. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster after two weeks after signing a major league deal worth $900,000 in November. Unless it’s decided that Cam Smith or Zach Cole needs more time in the minors, then there’s probably one spot on Houston’s roster for Joey Loperfido, Zach Dezenzo, Shay Whitcomb or Trammell.