Exclusive Interview with Astros President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Jeff Luhnow

Your offseason was relatively quiet with the exception of the signing of free agent Michael Brantley. Can you tell us about your off-season strategy?

Quiet is a relative term, and from my perspective we were quite active when you consider the vast majority of our team is returning and we won 103 games and our division last year.  We made five significant transactions this off-season that put our club in a strong position for 2019 and beyond.

The first one was the trade for Aledmys Diaz.  This young infielder was an All-Star player for the Cardinals a few years ago and can play multiple positions including a good shortstop, which gives AJ some flexibility to rest some of our core players.  He is a good offensive player who will strengthen the bottom of our lineup and he is early in his career so he will be with us for years to come.

The second move was the free agent signing of Robinson Chirinos.  Robinson has been one of the most productive offensive catchers in MLB over the past few seasons, and as a right handed hitter he should launch some balls into the Crawford Boxes this year.  He is an experienced receiver with a strong arm that should benefit from the Astros pitching staff and our coaching staff’s ability to help catchers improve defensively.  He and Stassi will share the catching duties and we expect above average production both offensively and defensively from that position.

The third move was to sign one of the top free agents available this year on a short term, two year deal.  Michael Brantley has battled injuries in his career so far but when healthy has been an elite outfielder with a very productive offensive approach.  He is a contact left handed hitter who can also drive the ball, and he figured to fit somewhere in the top half of our order complimenting the core players who are returning.

We traded JD Davis to the Mets for three prospects we feel have high upside.  We loved JD, but with our position players already at the big league level, he figured to be a long shot to make this team out of spring training and we were able to turn him into more future value for the organization.

The final big move was to sign Wade Miley to a one year deal.  This provides us with a veteran presence in our rotation behind Verlander and Cole.  He had a special year with Milwaukee last year and we especially like how he performed in the post season for the Brewers.

These moves together make us stronger on the field for sure.  Off the field, all four Major League players we acquired have excellent reputations and we have already seen how easily they are fitting in with this clubhouse and community.

Many baseball experts believe there is no more of an important everyday position player than the catcher. Do you agree and how do you rate your current catcher situation?

As mentioned earlier, we like our catching group.  Besides having Chirinos and Stassi (both of whom have the potential to produce offensively at a high level for the back of our lineup), we have Garrett Stubbs on the roster now.  Stubbs has the potential to be an everyday catcher at the Major League level with above average catching skills and strong offensive production.  Between the three of these receivers and others in our system who could be added to our roster during the season, we anticipate having  well above average catching production offensively and a solid defensive group that will help our pitchers be their best.

What do you look for during spring training?

Health first and then preparation second.  A healthy Astros roster will mean a very good shot at capturing our third straight division title in the AL West.  We balance keeping players healthy with preparing them for the mental and physical grind of the long season ahead.  We also give players a chance to show us their skills in an attempt to make the team.  There are not many open spots, but there will be strong competition for the final spots in the bullpen, rotation and among the position players for playing time.  Spring training performance doesn’t correlate very well with season performance so we are careful not to read too much into it, but we do look at how the player is achieving results and whether or not we believe that will work in Houston.

After winning a club record 103 games in 2018  how do you think this current roster compares against last years club?

I loved last year’s team and we had great success.  Perhaps I am the eternal optimist, but I believe we are better this year.  Why?  Because our core position players will hopefully be playing at 100%, which was not the case down the stretch last year.  I expect some of our players who had down years last year will bounce back to prior levels and the young players will continue to get better.  Our goal right now is to win the division and I think we can do that with the players we have.

Who are some of the non-household names on the Astros that may have a big impact in the future?

There are many… starting with Framber Valdez, Josh James, Cionel Perez and Miles Straw who all debuted last year and none of them were or are household names.  Kyle Tucker and Forrest Whitley are well known in the prospect following community and both figure to have a big impact in the future… as well as Corbin Martin, Yordan Alvarez, JB Bukauskas, Abraham Toro, and Ronnie Dawson… just to name a few that are in big league camp right now.

What do you think we can expect out of the big guns Springer, Altuve, Correa, and Bregman?

Easy… I expect those four players to be healthy and play up to their potential.  All four can be MVP candidates this year.  If they are all healthy, watch out… we will be a great team again this year!

March 2019