The Astros are in talks about adding a right-handed hitting outfielder, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Rome adds that they’ve shown interest in Rob Refsnyder and Austin Hays, each of whom was released this week.
Refsnyder and Hays signed one-year contracts with the Mariners and White Sox, respectively. Both players had a history of hitting left-handed pitching. Seattle signed Refsnyder as a pure platoon bat, while the White Sox dangled the everyday right field job to Hays. Considering they’ve both been released, it’ll come as no surprise that neither signing went according to plan.
The 35-year-old Refsnyder simply didn’t perform well. He batted .140/.211/.254 with four home runs despite taking the vast majority of his 129 plate appearances with the platoon advantage. He also missed most of July with right knee inflammation. Even with the difficulty of hitting at T-Mobile Park, it was a surprisingly poor season for a player who mashed lefties at a .312/.407/.516 clip while a member of the Red Sox from 2022-25.
Hays’ tough year was related mostly to injuries. He only appeared in 12 games. Hays lost a few weeks in April to a right hamstring strain, then had a significant left calf strain in early May. The White Sox have turned right field to rookie Braden Montgomery and gotten excellent short-side platoon work out of Randal Grichuk in the interim. There was simply no room for Hays, who failed to make much of an impression by hitting .233 with one homer in his 44 trips to the plate.
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Hays doesn’t have as stark a platoon split as Refsnyder. He’s a career .282/.340/.477 hitter against lefties and has a roughly league average .253/.300/.414 line without the platoon advantage. Hays has shown the ability to be an everyday player, but this is the third consecutive season in which he has missed time.
The Astros made their long awaited addition of a lefty-hitting outfielder at the deadline, trading for Daulton Varsho. They would’ve ideally been able to bring in two starting outfielders to play alongside Cam Smith. Only getting Varsho leaves them with a platoon of Taylor Trammell and a right-handed partner.
Houston swapped in Jake Meyers for Zach Dezenzo in that role today, starting Meyers in center field while playing Varsho in left against San Diego southpaw Robbie Ray. Meyers entered tonight’s game with a .206/.264/.316 line in 52 big league contests on the season. He’d hit .211/.283/.311 across 24 games in Triple-A since being optioned on July 4. Although Meyers is a quality defender, there’s clear room for an offensive upgrade in that platoon role.
It seems likely they’ll add someone on a major league contract. Signing a recently released player wouldn’t come at much financial cost, as they’d be on the prorated $780K league minimum (with their former teams on the hook for the rest of their salaries).
Aside from the aforementioned two targets, Stuart Fairchild elected free agency after being waived by the Mariners this afternoon. The Angels just released Jorge Soler as well, though he’s an imperfect fit considering he’s only played 67 innings on defense this year. They’d need to live with him or Yordan Alvarez in left field to get him into the lineup.
