Catcher has been one of the Astros’ few strengths this season, as Jason Castro has hit .270 with 14 homers and an .802 OPS to rank among baseball’s best, but with backup Carlos Corporan sidelined by a concussion Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that Houston is calling up catcher prospect Max Stassi.
Stassi has hit .277 with 17 homers and an .863 OPS in 76 games at Double-A as a 22-year-old and the former fourth-round pick has also thrown out 37 percent of steal attempts. He’s one of the better MLB-ready catching prospects in baseball and may have been in line for a September call-up anyway, so the move makes some sense.
Beyond this year, however, it’ll be interesting to see what the Astros do with Stassi. Normally he’d be on a path to take over as the starting catcher at some point next season, but Castro is just 26 years old and coming off his first All-Star campaign. It’s one of those nice problems to have and the Astros need talent wherever they can develop it, but at some point fairly soon trading a catcher will seemingly be in the plans.
