César Salazar has appeared in just 36 major-league games but could be in the mix to the Astros’ backup catcher next season.
The Houston Astros remain interested in adding a backup catcher, though they have not ruled out entering next season with César Salazar as the backup.
They value Salazar’s work with pitchers, but Salazar has played just 36 major-league games, and general manager Dana Brown has said adding more offensive impact might be a goal.
Houston has not explicitly ruled out a reunion with Victor Caratini but is aware other teams figure to have interest in the free agent after Caratini posted good offensive numbers with the Astros over the last two seasons.
Eric Velazquez promoted
Houston promoted Eric Velazquez to head athletic trainer to replace Jeremiah Randall, whose contract was not renewed after the season, Brown said. Velazquez spent the last four seasons as the Astros’ assistant athletic trainer.
Brown did not specify other changes to the training staff but reiterated the club is “taking a deep look” at its return-to-play procedures after an injury-plagued 2025 season and said “it’s something that we’re taking a lot of pride in this year.”
Not lacking starting options
Houston plans to report to camp with a large cadre of rotation options, then distribute that depth as needed.
Nate Pearson, signed to a one-year deal, will build up as a starter with a bullpen role as a fallback possibility, for example. A.J. Blubaugh, Colton Gordon and Lance McCullers Jr. all pitched from the bullpen at times in 2025 but will report to camp as starters, Brown said.
“Then, if we get to a point where we say, ‘Hey, these are the six guys that we’re going with,’ we could consider the other guys as depth if they have options or we could put guys in the pen and make the necessary adjustments,” he said
Matt Kawahara covers the Astros for the Houston Chronicle. He can be reached at [email protected]. He joined the Chronicle in June 2023 after previously working at The San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered the Oakland A’s from 2020-23 after two-plus years as the Oakland Raiders beat reporter. He also worked at The Sacramento Bee and primarily covered baseball, writing about the A’s and Giants. He is a Cal alum and Sacramento native.
Leave a Reply