![\"Astros\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1739371829.jpg\")
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The Houston Astros are struggling, but if those struggles continue, they could potentially help the Pittsburgh Pirates out at the deadline.<\/p>\n
The Houston Astros<\/a> won 87 games last season, but narrowly missed the postseason. They are off to a rough start in 2026, sitting at the bottom of the American League West with a 7-11 record as they welcome the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> to town for a three-game series.<\/p>\n The Astros still have plenty of time to turn their season around, but if they don\u2019t do it quickly, they could find themselves buried in the standings, which could ultimately lead to them selling at the trade deadline. However, not everything about the 2026 season has been bad for the Astros.<\/p>\n In fact, catcher Christian Vazquez has been off to a scorching hot start at the plate, hitting .370\/.393\/.630<\/a> with one home run, nine RBI and a 1.022 OPS. Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report<\/a> lists Vazquez as a top trade candidate if the Astros sell and named the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> as a top landing spot.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Pirates are currently rolling out the underperforming tandem of Henry Davis<\/a> (40 PA, 81 OPS+, 0.1 WAR) and Joey Bart (26 PA, 41 OPS+, -0.2 WAR) behind the dish, and both former top prospects profile more as organizational depth than impact talent at this point,\u201d Reuter wrote.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, V\u00e1zquez is enjoying a resurgent season playing on a one-year, $1 million deal after winning the backup catcher job as a non-roster invitee to Astros spring training.\u201d<\/p>\n Vazquez was acquired by the Astros from the Boston Red Sox<\/a> in 2022, and he played a key role in them winning their most recent World Series title. After a few down seasons with the Minnesota Twins<\/a>, he rejoined the Astros, but he has certainly found his groove again at the plate.<\/p>\n The return for Vazquez may not be much at this point in the veteran catcher\u2019s career, as he is in his age-35 season, but he still could be a solid pickup for a contending team.<\/p>\n The Pirates obviously need help at the catcher position, as they haven\u2019t gotten a lot of production out of the options that they have, so Vazquez would fit nicely with them as they look to build off of their hot start to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n Young Outfielder Named as Potential Return Piece<\/p>\n Tyler Callihan<\/a> was named as the possible return piece for Vazquez, which obviously isn\u2019t anything earth-shattering. But he is close to major league ready and could be somebody the Astros immediately plug into a spot on their active roster.<\/p>\n He can play the outfield and also some second base, so he could be a solid utility piece for the Astros. Vazquez wouldn\u2019t be anything more than a rental after joining the Astros as a non-roster invitee, so they wouldn\u2019t exactly be getting a haul for him.<\/p>\n But he makes sense as a trade candidate if they decide to be sellers at the trade deadline and pivot away from their current roster. It would be a move geared towards the future more than anything else.<\/p>\n It will be interesting to see if Houston can turn its season around. There\u2019s still time, but if they can\u2019t Vazquez is somebody that a contending team could show interest in.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tCurt Bishop<\/a> Curt Bishop is a freelance sports writer who has written for various outlets including Heavy Sports, Sports Illustrated, FanSided, The Sporting News, Newsweek and Yardbarker. His work entails mostly breaking and trending news with a concentration on Major League Baseball (MLB). Curt graduated from Maryville University of St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in communications with a focus on emerging and new media, as well as a music minor. More about Curt Bishop<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Astros\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Houston Astros are struggling, but if those struggles continue, they could potentially help the Pittsburgh Pirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-677114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-houstonastros","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116416147645465916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677114","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=677114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}