Houston Astros 2016 Season in Review
By Jason Burke
2016 in Review
Injuries, depth–or a lack thereof–and a lack of production in certain areas were what doomed the Astros in 2016. Dallas Keuchel looked hittable a season after taking home the AL Cy Young award. Lance McCullers made just 14 starts, totaling 81 innings, and while he was tremendous in those starts, compiling a 3.00 FIP, his absence for much of the season put a large burden on the starting staff and the team just didn’t have enough McCullers-esque options to replace him.
Keuchel had started to turn things around when he went down at the end of August, putting an added strain on an already thin pitching staff. Trading Scott Feldman certainly hurt that depth, but in the grand scheme of things likely wouldn’t have been enough to push them into the postseason after finishing five back of the second wild card spot.
The Astros ranked third in WAR among catchers, but that stat is a bit misleading, as they accrued 265 games played with Castro and Gattis oftentimes in the same lineup. That game total is far and away the most on the list, and a large majority of that WAR total is a combination of Castro’s defense behind the plate coupled with Gattis’ bat. Their combined wRC+ of 98 also ranked third.
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As we mentioned earlier, first base was a bit of a problem area for the club in 2016, despite Tyler White‘s hot start to the year and top prospect A.J. Reed making his big league debut. Instead, it was Marwin Gonzalez that saw the most time at first, but his usefulness to the club is in a utility role, not as a full-fledged first baseman.
Then of course there was center field, which was manned by Carlos Gomez for a large part of the season and saw him put up a wRC+ of 60, which is 40 percent below league average. Jake Marisnick didn’t help things with his mark of 58, but his defense is enough to keep him in the lineup moving forward. Teoacar Hernandez started in Double-A and made the climb all the way to Houston with his bat in 2016, after a down season at the plate in 2015. The combination of Marisnick and Hernandez could be a solid combination in center in ’17.
The Astros’ biggest offseason acquisition, Ken Giles, struggled a bit in spring training and Luke Gregerson ended up closing games for the club to start the season. Giles’ struggles continued through April, where he ended the month with a 9.00 ERA. Gregerson, Will Harris and Giles all got their turn in the ninth for Houston, and Giles proved that he could end up being worth the steep cost of acquisition with some solid work throughout the year.
On the bright side, Bregman debuted and got some experience in an Astros’ uniform, which should serve him well next season. Gurriel was a big international signing that could pay big dividends next year as well, along with the further development of Correa and Springer at key spots in the lineup.