Houston Astros Keep All Arbitration-Eligible Players, Set Up Future Moves

The Houston Astros made the decision to tender contracts to all their players eligible for arbitration.

Oct 1, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez (59) walks off the mount in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers in game one of the Wild Card round for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Minute Maid Park / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Teams around the league faced tough decisions this past Friday when it was the deadline to non-tender contracts to players on their rosters, but for the Houston Astros, they largely knew what they were going to do.

According to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, they tendered contracts to all eight of their arbitration eligible players, keeping Bryan Abreu, Mauricio Dubon, Luis Garcia, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers, Jeremy Pena, Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez in the mix for 2025.

This all makes sense.

All eight of those players are major contributors on the team, so it was always going to be a no-brainer to at least get them to a negotiation in arbitration.

Meyers and McCormick were the two most likely candidates who could have been made free agents if the Astros didn't feel like they wanted to keep them around, but if they are actually interested in not having one or both of those players on their roster, then keeping them through the winter where they can search for trades is the much more savvy approach.

That goes for the entire group.

Houston's general manager Dana Brown stated they need to be a bit "creative" this offseason if they are going to upgrade their roster amid the free agency questions regarding Alex Bregman.

It's been floated that they could look to ship out Framber Valdez since he's their best trade chip.

So, while the non-tender decision made by the Astros weren't surprising, they have now set themselves up to make more moves this winter, especially if they can trade some of the logjam they have in the outfield and in the starting rotation to improve other areas of the roster.