When the Houston Astros made their purge ahead of the 40-man roster deadline, there was one player everyone had circled as a guy who had to go. After a disastrous showing following his acquisition at the trade deadline, cutting ties with Jesús Sánchez and saving the not-insignificant $6.5 million he was projected to make in arbitration made sense.
However, Sánchez survived. Then the rumors sprouted up that the Astros were receiving trade interest in Sánchez, and the decision to tender him a contract began to make some sense. After all, if you could get something for the 28-year-old outfielder, then why give him away for free?
However, weeks have passed since that report, and there’s been no movement on the trade front. Instead, it can be argued that the Astros need Sánchez even more now. In dealing top prospect Jacob Melton as part of the three-team deal that brought Mike Burrows to Houston, the Astros may have solidified Sánchez’s spot on the opening day roster.
After all, they need lefty bats in the outfield, and Melton was their best shot to replace Sánchez. Combine that with the non-zero chance that Cam Smith begins next season at Triple-A Sugar Land, and it becomes clear that Sánchez is your starting right fielder.
The Astros have mistakenly given Jesus Sanchez a new lease on life for 2026
For his career, Sánchez is a .239/.307/.420 hitter, which is good for a 98 wRC+ and more or less in line with the numbers he put up in Miami, .256/.320/.420, prior to the trade deadline. If we assume that’s Sánchez’s true talent, and not his dismal .199/.269/.342 showing in Houston, he’s still roughly a league-average bat. Combine that with roughly average defense in right field, and you have a very average player.
For years, Sánchez has tantalized at being more. He owns 75-plus miles per hour bat speed that consistently ranks in the 90th percentile or better, and posts well above average hard hit and exit velo numbers. Take that and consider his six-foot-four, 222-pound frame, and you should have a power-hitting corner outfielder.
Yet, Sánchez has never hit more than 18 homers in a single season. His career .181 ISO is good, but not the stuff that sluggers are truly made of. The underlying metrics simply don’t match up with the performance on the field, and there is a very clear reason why.
Sánchez has an angle problem. His launch angle sweet spot percentage in 2025 came in at just 30.3%, which was a 10th percentile performance. In 2024, he came in at 31.8%, which ranked in the 24th percentile, and in 2023, he posted a 32.9% mark, which was good for the 34th percentile.
Instead of hitting the ball in the air to take advantage of his ability to hit the ball hard, Sánchez specializes in worm burners, posting a 48.8% ground ball rate for his career, which is significantly higher than the league average of 44.2%.
The simple answer is to tweak his swing and have him loft the ball more, but that’s easier said than done. Even without a pronounced uppercut in his swing, Sánchez owns a career 29.1% whiff rate. That would only increase by trying to hit more balls in the air, potentially negating any gains in power production.
At the end of the day, Sánchez is an average player, and at $6.5 million, you can’t complain about that too much when looking at everything in a vacuum. However, given the Astros’ needs, taking that $6.5 million and applying it elsewhere where it could be more impactful would make a whole lot more sense. Perhaps someone steps up to the plate as a trade partner, but until then, Sánchez will get a lot of run in 2026, and even with a bounce-back to his career norms, his impact will be minimal.