#José Urquidy

After seven months of abuse from across the sport, the Astros won the American League pennant for the third time in five years but fell two wins shy of a redemptive World Series title. Their window to claim another championship did not slam shut, though. Eight of their nine everyday position players return for 2022 along with a blossoming young…

Free-agent catcher Willson Contreras is signing a five-year deal with the Cardinals, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal first reported news of the Cardinals closing in on an agreement with Contreras and ESPN's Jeff Passan first reported terms of the $87.5 million deal, which is pending a physical.…

As the latest edition of MLB free agency approaches the three-week mark, we haven't seen a lot of activity involving the market's top free agents. Much of this may have to do with the free agency of New York Yankees star and reigning home-run king Aaron Judge. The 30-year-old slugger is coveted by several teams and is expected to earn a hefty…

When he introduced newest Astros slugger José Abreu on Tuesday, owner Jim Crane said he wasn't done with free agency and specifically mentioned being "in the mix" for Justin Verlander and Yuli Gurriel. If Gurriel were to return, it would be in a limited role behind Abreu, who was sitting immediately to Crane's left as he made the comments.…

With the season, goodness, only days away now, it's time to start previewing some divisions. While allotting for the fact that there are still surely plenty of moves to be made, we have a pretty good idea, at this point, what teams will generally look like. Today: The American League West Every team wants to make the playoffs, but the AL West may…

After Yordan Alvarez's 6th-inning, 3-run homer helped secure a 4-2 series win, the Houston Astros are World Series champions. Astros owner Jim Crane made his fortune in the logistics industry - his Crane Worldwide brings in $1.6 billion in gross annual revenue - and now his team has become one of the most efficient spenders in baseball. After a…

Following an entertaining Wild Card round that featured three "upsets" (Philadelphia Phillies over St. Louis Cardinals; Seattle Mariners over Toronto Blue Jays; San Diego Padres over New York Mets), the MLB playoffs continue this week in what should be an action-packed Division Series. As in seasons pasts, the Division Series remains a best-of-five…

After a first-round bye, the time has come to finish up a roster plan for the American League Division Series. Similar to years past, the Houston Astros could opt for a deeper bench rather than a complete pitching staff. A best-of-five series leaves the Astros ability to drop a pitcher - given a full pitching rotation isn't needed - for another…

For as much pitching depth as the Astros possess, it was only a matter of time before some difficult decisions were made about the postseason roster. Quality pitchers, who would have expanded roles on other clubs, are facing a roster crunch in Houston. There are only so many innings to go around in a short series. For example, we've already seen…

The Houston Astros are a rather disappointing 9-6 when facing the Oakland Athletics in 2022, but it's hard to complain about a winning record. Nevertheless, the Athletics are a team with a.364 winning percentage and the Astros sport a.650. Any Astros player or fan could very understandably wish for a better winning percentage than.600 against the…