In late November, Jose Abreu and the Houston Astros agreed to a 3-year deal. Jose Abreu is a 3-time All-Star and in 2020, he won the AL MVP award. Abreu spent 9 years with the White Sox, hitting .292/.354/.506 with 243 home runs and 863 RBI. He’s surely one of the most dangerous hitters in the majors. However, does the Astros front office actually make the right decision to sign with Jose Abreu?
Firstly, Yuli Gurriel was the first baseman of the Astros in 2022. During the regular season, Gurriel slashed .242/.288/.360 with 8 home runs and 53 RBI in 146 games. Yuli Gurriel’s OPS was .845 in 2021, nonetheless, his OPS dropped dramatically to .648 in 2022. At the same time, Jose Abreu played 157 games for the White Sox in 2022, hitting .304/.378/.446 with 15 home runs and 75 RBI. Abreu’s OPS was .832 in 2021 and in the 2022 season, his OPS was .824. There’s no huge difference in OPS. However, he only blasted 15 home runs this season. Back in 2021, Abreu crushed 30 home runs in 152 games. Abreu didn’t hit so many home runs in 2022, but he did collect more hits than he did in 2021. Looking at the hitting performance, it seems that adding Abreu is an upgrade of the Astros lineup. Moreover, Abreu is now 35 years old and Gurriel already turned 38. Thus, it’s quite reasonable for the Astros to acquire Jose Abreu to replace Yuli Gurriel, who becomes a free agent. But, Jose Abreu will turn 36 in January, can he really hit well at Minute Maid Park? By far in his career, Jose Abreu batted .202/.250/.340 with 2 home runs and 9 RBI at Minute Maid Park. Well, it seems that Jose Abreu didn’t hit well at his new home. However, the Astros pitching staff have been pretty good these years and that might be the reason why he didn’t hit well at Minute Maid Park.
Finally, let’s look at Abreu’s stats against AL West teams. Abreu has an OPS over .900 against the Angels. Moreover, against the A’s or the Rangers, his OPS is over .800. Nonetheless, he didn’t hit well against the Mariners since his OPS against the Mariners is below .700. Overall, Abreu doesn’t have too many problems at hitting against AL West teams. Adding Jose Abreu in the lineup certainly would be helpful for the Astros to win another AL West title. At age 35, Jose Abreu can still hit well. His hard-hit rate was 51.8% in 2022. Furthermore, his strikeout rate dropped from 21.7% to 16.2%. A strikeout rate of 16.2% is lowest in his career. But, he didn’t crush many home runs as he used to do and an interesting thing is that the average launch angle is 8 degrees. Perhaps, Jose Abreu has changed his hitting approach? Are we going to see him blast 30 home runs in a single season again? But, the good news for the Astros is that Abreu rarely missed playing time in his career and it wasn’t common to see him on the IL.
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