News Astros Team Notes

Astros Put Five Players On Outright Waivers

The Astros have put five players on outright waivers, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. They are outfielders Chas McCormick, Kenedy Corona and Pedro León, left-hander John Rooney and right-hander Luis Garcia. Michael Schwab of The Ice Box reported on McCormick earlier today.

Some roster maintenance was inevitable for the Astros. They had a large number of injuries in 2025, leading to several players ending up on the 60-day injured list. The IL goes away five days after the World Series and doesn’t return until spring training, so the club would need to open some spots.

Garcia, 29 in December, was an easy cut. 2026 was slated to be his final arbitration season before he qualified for free agency. He underwent Tommy John surgery last month and is going to miss that entire campaign. The Astros weren’t going to tender him a contract, so he’s been bumped off the roster now.

For the same reasons, he should pass through waivers unclaimed, unless some club wants to work out a two-year deal covering his recovery and theoretical return to the mound in 2027. But it’s more likely that clubs wait for him to clear and become a free agent before discussing such deals with him.

McCormick, 31 in April, is the other guy in this batch with notable major league experience. He was a solid contributor for the Astros from 2021 to 2023. He struck out a lot but hit at least 14 home runs in each of those campaigns. He slashed a combined .259/.336/.449 for a 120 wRC+ in that span with 27 stolen bases and strong defensive grades, with contributions in the postseason as well.

Unfortunately, he’s been nowhere near that productive in the past two years. He has slashed .211/.273/.301 since the start of 2024, production that translates to a 64 wRC+. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $3.4MM arbitration salary next year. After two years of struggles, the Astros were probably going to non-tender him.

He is controllable through the 2027 season, so perhaps he gets claimed by some club who views him as a change-of-scenery candidate. However, it’s also possible that clubs wait for him to clear and then reach free agency, at which point they could try to sign him at a lower price point than the projected salary.

León, 28 in May, was once a high-profile signing out of Cuba but he hasn’t yet been able to deliver on the hype. He has only played in seven big league games so far. His minor league numbers have been more decent than amazing. A sprained MCL in his left knee put him on the shelf for most of 2025, limiting him to just 25 games.

It’s possible León garners interest from other clubs based on his past prospect pedigree. He still has options and could be stashed in the minors next year. While his 2025 was mostly a lost year, he slashed .299/.372/.514 in Triple-A last year for a 130 wRC+.

Corona, 26 in March, was an international signing of the Mets. He came to the Astros in the December 2019 trade which sent Jake Marisnick to Queens. Houston put Corona on their 40-man roster in November 2023, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

His numbers have backed up since then. He has only played in three big league games. He has a .217/.311/.309 batting line and 74 wRC+ in the minors dating back to the start of 2024. That was a big drop from his 2022 and 2023 production, as he slashed .264/.346/.475 for a 116 wRC+ over those seasons. Like León, he still has options, which could increase the chances some other club grabs him as a depth option.

Rooney, 29 in January, was just acquired from the Marlins in an August cash deal. He has one big league appearance under his belt, having allowed one earned run over 1 1/3 innings for the Astros on August 24th. He tossed 38 2/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 2.56 earned run average, 34.2% strikeout rate, 14.9% walk rate and 42.5% ground ball rate. The lefty underwent surgery late in the year remove bone spurs and address tennis elbow. Per Rome, he’s expected to miss the entire 2026 season.

Garcia and McCormick each have enough service time to reject outright assignments and elect free agency if they clear waivers. Rooney and Corona have been in the minors for at least seven years, meaning they would be eligible for minor league free agency five days after the World Series, if they are off the roster by then. León doesn’t have seven years in the minors, nor does he have three years of service or a previous career outright. If he clears waivers, the Astros should be able to keep him as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/astros-put-five-players-on-outright-waivers.html
 
Astros To Hire Victor Rodriguez As Hitting Coach

The Astros are finalizing a deal to hire Victor Rodriguez as their new hitting coach, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has been serving as the hitting coach in San Diego for the past two seasons. Rodriguez has a year remaining on his deal with San Diego. Houston parted ways with hitting coaches Alex Cintrón and Troy Snitker in early October.

Rodriguez has more than a decade of hitting coach experience at the MLB level. After several years coaching in Boston’s minor league organization, he became the Red Sox assistant hitting coach in 2013. Following the 2017 season, he moved on to Cleveland, once again as the assistant hitting coach. Rodriguez took over as hitting coach in San Diego ahead of the 2024 season.

San Diego has hit safely at an elite rate under Rodriguez. After ranking 20th in batting average as a team in 2023, the Padres finished first in 2024. As Acee points out, it was the first time in franchise history that the club paced the league in batting average. San Diego also had the lowest strikeout rate in the majors by a decent margin in Rodriguez’s debut campaign. The Padres’ 17.6% strikeout rate was 1.7% lower than the next-closest team (Houston at 19.3%). The midseason addition of Luis Arraez certainly provided a boost in terms of batting average and contact, while a strong rookie debut from Jackson Merrill helped the club finish eighth in scoring.

The Padres ranked seventh in batting average this past season. They had the third-lowest strikeout rate. Scoring was an issue, as San Diego finished 18th in runs. Merrill, slowed by injuries, took a step back. Xander Bogaerts also missed time. The team had just two regulars finish with an OPS above .800 (Fernando Tatis Jr. and trade deadline acquisition Ramon Laureano).

Houston’s typically dynamic offense scuffled mightily in 2025. The Astros were 21st in scoring this past season. They hadn’t finished bottom 10 in runs since 2014. Houston traded Kyle Tucker to the Cubs and lost Alex Bregman in free agency this past offseason, leaving a gap in the middle of the order. Injuries limited Yordan Alvarez to 48 games, which didn’t help matters. The Astros got solid contributions from Isaac Paredes, who came back in the Tucker trade, though he also missed two months with a hamstring injury. Better luck on the health front, plus continued development from youngsters Cam Smith and Zach Cole, should help Houston bounce back under Rodriguez.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/astros-to-hire-victor-rodriguez-as-hitting-coach.html
 
13 Players Receive Qualifying Offers

Thirteen players have received a qualifying offer this year, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The list is as follows:


This year’s QO is valued at $22.025MM. All 13 players will have until Nov. 18 to decide whether to accept that one-year offer or decline and become a free agent. They can spend that time gauging the open market to determine interest in their services. If a player accepts the QO, he’ll be treated as a free agent signing and thus will be ineligible to be traded without his consent until June 15 of next year. If he declines, any team that signs him will be subject to draft and/or international bonus forfeitures, depending on its revenue-sharing and luxury tax status.

The bulk of the list was generally expected. Every recipient other than Torres and Imanaga was pegged as likely or a no-doubter to receive the QO on MLBTR’s annual lists of qualifying offer previews for position players and for pitchers. Torres was viewed as something of a long shot, at least on the MLBTR staff. He’s coming off a nice season in Detroit but struggled through a poor finish — perhaps in part due to injury — and wasn’t hit with a QO last offseason when coming off a comparable year at the plate in the Bronx.

Imanaga was listed as a borderline call on our preview as well. The Cubs declined a three-year, $57MM option on Imanaga last week. He subsequently declined a $15MM player option (which came with an additional player option at $15MM) — effectively opting out of a remaining two years and $30MM. The Cubs are banking on Imanaga also turning away one year at just over $22MM after turning down that remaining $30MM in guaranteed money.

The qualifying offer is determined each year by taking the average of the game’s 125 highest-paid players. We’ve already covered the penalties that each team would face for signing a qualified free agent, as well as the compensation each club would get for losing a qualified free agent to another team.

Among the notable free agents to not receive a qualifying offer are Lucas Giolito, Robert Suarez, Devin Williams and Jorge Polanco. Giolito might have received one had it not been for a late elbow issue that ended his season. Suarez has been excellent and just opted out of the remaining two years and $16MM on his contract, but he’ll be 35 next year. The Padres have been reducing payroll in recent seasons and likely didn’t want to risk Suarez locking in that weighty one-year sum. Williams would have received a QO with a typical season, but he struggled throughout much of the season’s first four months before a dominant finish. Polanco enjoyed a terrific rebound campaign but is 32 years old and was limited to DH work for much of the season due to ongoing injury issues.

The qualifying offer grants each of these free agents the chance at a notable one-year payday, though the majority of them will reject without much thought. Players like Tucker, Bichette, Schwarber, Valdez, Cease, Suarez and Diaz are likely to see comparable or larger (much larger, in Tucker’s case) salaries on multi-year deals in free agency. Even players like Grisham, who probably won’t land a $22MM annual value over multiple years, are still likely to reject. Major league free agents typically — though not always — prioritize long-term earning over short-term, higher-AAV pacts. A three- or four-year deal worth $14-16MM per year, for instance, is typically viewed as preferable to accepting one year at a higher rate.

There’s risk in declining the offer, of course. Teams are more reluctant to sign players who’ll cost them valuable draft picks and/or notable portions of their hard-capped bonus pool for international amateurs. Every offseason, there are a handful of free agents whose markets are weighed down by the burden of draft pick compensation. That typically applies to the “lower end” of the QO recipients. For top stars like Tucker, Bichette, etc. — draft/international forfeitures are simply considered the cost of doing business and don’t tend to have much (if any) impact on the player’s earning power.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/13-players-receive-qualifying-offers-2.html
 
Astros’ Chas McCormick Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

Astros outfielder Chas McCormick has cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. McCormick and four other Astros had been placed on outright waivers earlier this week. With more than three years of MLB service time, McCormick had the right to reject the assignment.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had McCormick projected to get $3.4MM in arbitration next season. While that projected salary may have been too high to entice suitors as a waiver claim, teams can now pursue McCormick as a bounce-back candidate at a cheaper price. The 30-year-old is under team control through the 2027 season and was quite productive in the not-too-distant past.

McCormick debuted in 2021 and immediately emerged as a steady producer for Houston. He popped 14 home runs in just 320 plate appearances as a rookie, while providing strong defense. McCormick took a step forward in terms of plate discipline the following season, cutting his strikeout rate by 6.5% and bumping his walk rate to an elite 11.3%. His power numbers took a step back, but the improved contact skills made up for it. The 2023 campaign was McCormick’s breakout year. He fell a stolen base shy of a 20/20 season, slashing .273/.353/.489 over a career-high 457 plate appearances.

Injuries limited McCormick to 267 plate appearances in 2024, and he struggled mightily when healthy. McCormick’s wRC+ was more than cut in half compared to 2023, falling from 132 to 65. He continued to scuffle in 2025, slashing .210/.279/.290 in 66 games. An oblique injury cost him a month of action. McCormick was demoted in September and finished the season at Triple-A Sugar Land.

Houston will have Yordan Alvarez and Cam Smith holding down the corner outfield spots in 2026. Center field is a bit of a question mark, though prospect Zach Cole held his own in his brief debut. Jake Meyers was also having a solid season before a calf injury derailed him.
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/astros-chas-mccormick-clears-waivers-elects-free-agency.html
 
Orioles To Claim Pedro León

The Orioles have claimed outfielder Pedro León off waivers from the Astros, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. It was reported earlier this week that Houston had put several players on waivers, including León, as they looked to clear out some roster space. The O’s will need to make space on their 40-man roster to make the move official.

Baltimore is taking a flier on a post-hype prospect. León was a high-profile signing out of Cuba several years ago. In January of 2021, the Astros gave him a $4MM signing bonus. He was ranked as one of the top prospects in the system for the next few years. He’s now 27 years old, turning 28 in May, but hasn’t yet delivered on that hype. He has only appeared in seven big league games thus far. He struck out in 10 of his 21 plate appearances as he has produced a .100/.143/.100 line.

That’s obviously a tiny sample of work but his minor league track record also isn’t great. From 2021 to 2023, he hit .233/.350/.419 on the farm. That offense translates to a 104 wRC+, indicating he was above average but barely. He struck out in 29% of his plate appearances in that time.

In 2024, he had a monster .299/.372/.514 showing in Triple-A. He still struck out at a fairly high 27% clip but that offense was good enough for a 130 wRC+, even in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League. Here in 2025, a sprained MCL in his left knee limited him to just 22 Triple-A contests. He hit .241/.312/.422 for a wRC+ of 89 in those.

Obviously, the Astros were hoping for more when they signed him. The Orioles are hoping that a late-bloomer breakout can come in their organization. León is still optionable, so they could keep him in the minors. He showed big potential in 2024 before the injury-marred 2025. Ideally, the O’s will get a healthy and productive season from León in 2026. If that comes to pass, he could push his way into their outfield mix as the season goes along. Currently, that group includes Colton Cowser, Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Beavers, Jeremiah Jackson, Leody Taveras and others.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images
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Source: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/orioles-to-claim-pedro-leon.html
 
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