Nothing can derail a season like a rash of injuries — just ask the 2025 Astros.
No team used the injured list more. Yordan Alvarez was limited to 48 games, Isaac Paredes missed 60 games, and Jeremy Peña and Jake Meyers also were out significant time.
On the mound, the Astros used 33 different pitchers (plus three position players), a franchise record.
The Astros can’t possibly have worse injury luck in 2026, but they will still deal with their share at some point. Here are the five players they can least afford to lose, in reverse order.
This isn’t as much about Diaz, who had his worst Major League season in 2025, than it is about who is behind him. Victor Caratini is now in Minnesota after serving two excellent seasons as Diaz’s backup, leaving Cesar Salazar as the only other catcher on the Astros’ 40-man roster.
Salazar was drafted by the Astros in 2018 and is respected throughout the organization. But he has started only 14 games behind the plate despite accruing more than a full season of service time. And while he spent a good portion of 2025 on the active roster, Salazar did not appear in a game closer than seven runs until he started against the Rockies on Aug. 27.
Granted, he was on the roster as a third catcher. Still, there were opportunities for Joe Espada to use the switch-hitting Salazar as a pinch hitter — and he never did. That makes it fair to wonder just how much the Astros truly trust the 29-year-old.
Spring training games have yet to begin, so there is time for the Astros to look outside the organization for Diaz’s backup. But at the moment, the job appears to belong to Salazar, and you have to wonder how comfortable the team would be with him as the primary catcher if something were to happen to Diaz.
Peña is coming off a career year that saw him reach the potential he flashed while winning ALCS and World Series MVP as a rookie. An All-Star for the first time, Peña produced 5.6 bWAR despite playing just 125 games and finished 10th in MVP voting. You don’t just replace players like that.
Yes, the Astros have Carlos Correa back, and he could slide to shortstop — which he did a handful of times after being traded back to Houston. But Correa has made it clear he prefers to play third base to help preserve his body over a full season. So what do the Astros do if Peña misses extended time?
Nick Allen is excellent defensively, but he posted a 53 OPS+ in 416 plate appearances with the Braves last season. For context, Zack Greinke had a career 60 OPS+. The options beyond Allen are even thinner — a reminder that the Astros traded Mauricio Dubón, non-tendered Ramón Urías over the winter to save money, and still salary-dumped Jesús Sánchez.
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Josh Hader and Brian Abreu
The Astros focused on fortifying and adding depth to a starting rotation that has been pushed to the limit the past three seasons, but they largely ignored the bullpen. Few teams are better in the eighth and ninth innings than the Astros — but what about the bridge to get there?
Steven Okert, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa were outstanding last season, but all three are left-handed, and all three came out of nowhere. No position in baseball is more volatile than relief pitching. Do you trust all three to replicate their 2025 seasons? And who is the right-hander the Astros can rely on after Abreu?
The Astros play 26 games in the first 28 days of the season, so this group will be tested immediately. It will be interesting to see how Joe Espada navigates games when one — or both — of Abreu and Hader are unavailable.
Kyle Tucker is gone. Alex Bregman is gone. Jose Altuve is 35.
Despite that, the Astros remain a formidable lineup with solid depth one through nine, but at this point Alvarez is the only player who truly moves the needle. Injuries limited his 2025 season to 48 subpar (for him) games, but over the previous three seasons only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani posted a higher OPS.
A healthy Alvarez elevates everyone else in the lineup. It takes some of the pressure off and gives them better pitches to hit. The Astros ranked 15th in runs scored last season, and a big reason for the drop-off was that they finished 21st in home runs. They need slug, and Alvarez is the one player who can truly provide it.
Even with the loss of Framber Valdez, the Astros enter the 2026 season in pretty good shape. They will likely open with a six-man rotation and have solid options to turn to if something happens to one of those six. But none can come close to replacing the innings or the effectiveness of Brown, who has developed into one of baseball’s best starters.
Brown compiled a 2.43 ERA in a season in which he finished behind only Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet in AL Cy Young voting. He completed at least six innings in 22 of 31 starts and pitched into the sixth in five others. Brown is a legitimate staff ace who impacts games even when he doesn’t start.
He allows Espada to be more aggressive with the bullpen before his start day, and because he typically works deep into games, the bullpen is fresh the next day. A player like that is irreplaceable.
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