The Astros will open the 2026 season in exactly one week. At this point in most springs, there might be two or three roster spots still up for grabs, but this year\u2019s 26-man roster feels much murkier. Here is my third and final stab at projecting who will be in uniform next week when the Astros host the Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n
Starting pitchers:\u00a0Hunter Brown, Christian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows, Spencer Arrighetti, Lance McCullers Jr<\/p>\n
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Also considered:\u00a0None<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a very good spring for this group, outside of Arrighetti\u2019s first outing. All six are healthy, and all six are throwing the ball well. Even the pitchers outside this group have looked good whenever they\u2019ve taken the ball, so this rotation has the makings of being both very strong and very deep.<\/p>\n
Bullpen:\u00a0Bryan Abreu, Bryan King, Steven Okert, AJ Blubaugh, Ryan Weiss, Enyel De Los Santos, Kai-Wei Teng<\/p>\n
Also considered:\u00a0Roddery Mu\u00f1oz, Peter Lambert<\/p>\n
Bennett Sousa suffered an oblique injury, so he\u2019ll join Josh Hader on the IL to start the season. I\u2019m still working under the assumption that De Los Santos will be ready for Opening Day after suffering an ankle injury, but he has yet to appear in a spring training game.<\/p>\n
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Mu\u00f1oz has not allowed an earned run in his last seven outings after giving up two in his debut. He has 14 strikeouts over 8.1 innings and must remain on the active roster all season after being selected in the Rule 5 Draft over the winter.<\/p>\n
A former second-round pick, Lambert has impressed after a season in Japan, and\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0reported that he can opt out of his minor league deal at the end of spring training. He\u2019s put himself in position to make someone\u2019s Opening Day roster if he doesn\u2019t make the Astros\u2019.<\/p>\n
Catchers:\u00a0Yainer Diaz, Christian V\u00e1zquez<\/p>\n
Also considered:\u00a0C\u00e8sar Salazar<\/p>\n
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The Astros wasted no time getting V\u00e1zquez into a game after he joined the club following Puerto Rico\u2019s elimination from the WBC. I think he was signed to open the season as D\u00edaz\u2019s backup, but that plan carries some risk. Salazar is out of options, so the Astros would have to expose him to waivers if they send him down.<\/p>\n
Infielders: Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Jeremy Pe\u00f1a, Christian Walker, Isaac Paredes, Nick Allen<\/p>\n
Also considered:\u00a0Brice Matthews, Zach Dezenzo<\/p>\n
We still don\u2019t know if Pe\u00f1a, who fractured a finger during a WBC tune-up game, will be available for Opening Day. However, the Astros haven\u2019t ruled it out, which suggests that even if he can\u2019t go next Thursday, he wouldn\u2019t miss enough time to require an IL stint.<\/p>\n
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Outfielders\/DH:\u00a0Yordan Alvarez Jake Meyers, Cam Smith, Joey Loperfido, Taylor Trammell<\/p>\n
Also considered:\u00a0Zach Cole , Zach Dezenzo<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had Cole on the Opening Day roster in each of my first two projections, but he\u2019s up to 17 strikeouts in 42 plate appearances\u2014north of 40%. His results on balls in play haven\u2019t been much better, so a little time in Sugar Land might do him some good.<\/p>\n
Dezenzo\u2019s elbow injury likely takes him out of the running for a spot on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros will open the 2026 season in exactly one week. At this point in most springs, there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2389],"tags":[31009,42,5,3616,9027,7618,9279,451,3225,2263,49,81388,1250,100,4579,11192,139,54,3211,1328,893,5828,18040,817,1109,37588,1484,56,363,4,2270,1406,10195,62395,4678,9278,4658,9356,1567,5355,43882,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-635135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-aj-blubaugh","9":"tag-astros","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-bennett-sousa","12":"tag-brice-matthews","13":"tag-bryan-abreu","14":"tag-bryan-king","15":"tag-cam-smith","16":"tag-carlos-correa","17":"tag-cesar-salazar","18":"tag-chicago-white-sox","19":"tag-christian-javier","20":"tag-christian-vazquez","21":"tag-christian-walker","22":"tag-de-los-santos","23":"tag-enyel-de-los-santos","24":"tag-houston","25":"tag-houston-astros","26":"tag-houstonastros","27":"tag-hunter-brown","28":"tag-isaac-paredes","29":"tag-jeremy-pena","30":"tag-joey-loperfido","31":"tag-jose-altuve","32":"tag-josh-hader","33":"tag-kai-wei-teng","34":"tag-lance-mccullers-jr","35":"tag-los-angeles-angels","36":"tag-mike-burrows","37":"tag-mlb","38":"tag-nick-allen","39":"tag-opening-day","40":"tag-peter-lambert","41":"tag-ryan-weiss","42":"tag-spencer-arrighetti","43":"tag-steven-okert","44":"tag-tatsuya-imai","45":"tag-taylor-trammell","46":"tag-texas","47":"tag-yainer-diaz","48":"tag-zach-cole","49":"tag-zach-dezenzo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}