Jose

Abreu

The 37-year-old has been playing winter games in the Puerto Rican league and is leading the league in both home runs, with four, and RBI, with ten. Still, despite his success in that league, he hit just .124 in 113 at-bats for the Astros this season and seemed unable to catch up with velocity in the way he had previously. If he does sign with an MLB team, you’d have to assume it would be a minor league contract.

The 37-year-old from Cuba has accomplished a lot in his career. Abreu is a three-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger award winner, won the Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and Most Valuable Player award in 2020. It’s undeniable that his production has fallen off a cliff over the last two seasons, though. Abreu hit .237/.296/.383 in 141 games last year and his average fell to .124 in 113 at-bats this year. He’s in the second year of a three-year $58.3 million deal, but the Astros recognized the sunk cost and will be on the hook for the remainder of the money still owed to Abreu.

Abreu is definitely swinging the bat better now than he was before he was sent to the minors, but that bar is so low it might as well be underground. Both of his homers have come since his return, a period that’s seen him go 5-for-27 with an 8/1 K/BB. We’re still pretty skeptical that he belongs in the majors at this point.

José Abreu is starting at first base and Kyle Tucker is at DH with Mauricio Dubon in right field. Interestingly, the Astros will be facing a right-handed pitcher, so this isn’t about pitcher-handedness. Singleton got off to a decent start to the year, but he’s hitting just .212 in May with a 27 percent strikeout rate. Abreu hasn’t been great himself, but it’s looking like Singleton will lose playing time with Abreu back in the fold.

We’d understand the Astros giving Abreu one more shot at Jon Singleton’s expense, and we’d understand setting up a platoon that sees Singleton play versus righties and Abreu against lefties. What we can’t understand is playing both guys, when it means putting both Chas McCormick and Mauricio Dubón on the bench and taking a defensive downgrade with Yordan Alvarez in left field (and increasing the injury risk for Alvarez). Still, that’s exactly what the Astros have done in both games since Abreu returned from exile. It’s a bad strategy, and the team has paid the price the last two days.

Abreu was deemed ready to return after going 0-for-7 with three strikeouts and one walk in two Triple-A games. Maybe he’ll be OK for the Astros, but it’s hard to see him being much better than that, given how he’s performed since the start of 2023 (.221/.280/.352 in 671 PA). Jon Singleton will head back to the bench for now. In spite of a .333 average during his time in the majors, Joey Loperfido was sent down to make room for Abreu.

José Abreu has already made the trip to Seattle, and he’ll be a part of the Houston roster for their four-game series against the Mariners. The right-handed hitter has struggled mightily in the majors, and fantasy managers should wait to see some sort of success at the highest level before adding him to a fantasy roster.

It’s possible that Abreu could also play a third game at Triple-A Sugar Land on Sunday, though that has yet to be decided. It sounds like Joey Loperfido will be the odd-man out upon Abreu’s return, but it’ll be interesting to see how the playing time shakes out at first base between him and Jon Singleton who has been holding down the fort for the past few weeks.

It sounds like he’ll begin playing there on Friday, with the possibility that he could be back in the majors as soon as Sunday. Abreu has gone 6-for-18 with two doubles in eight games in Rookie ball.

The Astros optioned Abreau to extended spring training at the end of April with the infielder hitting just .099 with one extra-base hit over 22 games with Houston. He likely would split time with Jon Singleton at the first base position, but while Abreu has had success at the highest level — success is an understatement, obviously — it’d be a mistake to believe Abreu can be a fantasy contributor based on what he’s showed over the last couple of years.