One Key Stat Highlighted Houston Astros Offensive Struggles This Season

The Houston Astros will look to find their past form after one key area caused them to struggle on offense this season.

Oct 2, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA;Houston Astros second base Jose Altuve (27) nearly loses his helmet on a swing against the Detroit Tigers during the third inning of game two of the Wildcard round for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Minute Maid Park / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

There are a lot of questions the Houston Astros will have to answer this offseason.

The elephant in the room centers around what they are going to do with Alex Bregman in free agency considering he has been a staple of this roster over the years on his way to becoming a franchise legend, and multiple players, including Jose Altuve, have talked about his importance in the clubhouse and how much they would like him to be back.

Pressure is on owner Jim Crane to pony up the money it will take to keep him with the Astros or else there could be some real internal frustration.

Regardless if Bregman returns or not, though, Houston also has to make some adjustments when it comes to what they do on the field.

Chandler Rome of The Athletic took a look at why this offense wasn't quite able to perform like other Astros teams in the past, and one key area was highlighted as the reason for their struggles.

Their swing percentage in 2024 was at 50%, causing their chase rate to sit at 31.8% which was second-worst in Major League Baseball ahead of only the Miami Marlins. They saw the fewest pitches per at-bat with 3.65 and drew a walk only 7.3% of the time.

That was vastly different from their figures in 2021 when they won 95 games, in 2022 when they won the World Series, and last season when they made their seventh consecutive ALCS appearance.

It was alarming to see Houston approach things this way at the plate, something manager Joe Espada knows will have to be corrected next year.

"At times, we kind of got away from who we are, our offensive identity. We'll continue to preach and coach and teach who we are as an organization, what has made us successful in the years past. We'll look at all those things moving forward," he said per Rome.

The raw numbers took a hit becasue of those metrics.

This season, the Astros were 11th in runs scored, third in hits, and 12th in RBI.

In 2021, they led the MLB in runs scored, hits, and RBI. That moved to eighth in runs scored, 13th in hits, and eighth in RBI during 2022 before getting hot and winning the World Series. They followed up their championship by being fifth in runs scored, third in hits, and fifth in RBI.

The patented clutch hit with runners on-base and in scoring position never quite came at a consistent rate like Houston teams in the past have produced.

Having Kyle Tucker healthy should help improve that, but his absence was not the sole reason why things were different.

"What [Dana] Brown and his baseball operations team must weigh is whether improvement will come from returning players, or whether searching for a specific offensive profile on the open market is more conducive to immediate success," Rome adds.

This coaching staff and front office will have their work cut out for them as they try to get this team back into championship contention.