After a brutal 12-20 start to the 2026 season, and despite much better play over the last 50 or so games, the Houston Astros sit at 47-51 at the All Star break. The body of work during the Joe Espada Era, starting back in 2024, would indicate that the Golden Age of Astros baseball is definitively over.
However, with an American League West and an American League as a whole that are both as mediocre and underwhelming as they’ve both ever been, the Astros still sit in striking distance within the division (three games back) and for the final wild card (1.5 games back). The Golden Age may be over, but relevant baseball will not die! Hell, GM Dana Brown is making noise about being a buyer at the trade deadline! The fun never ends!
As far as this season goes, we are at the symbolic halfway point with the All Star break this week. Thus, now is a good time to count our blessings and air our grievances. With that in mind, here are four winners and four losers for the pre-All Star Break portion of 2026:
WINNERS
4. Steven Okert
After a really rough start to the season, the Astros’ bullpen has steadied itself into one of the best in baseball since mid-May. Nobody epitomizes that steadiness more than the reliable lefty Okert, who’s pitched in over half of the Astros’ games so far this season. His ERA and WHIP are an elite 2.31 and 0.84, respectively. Okert has proven very reliable in mid game leverage situations, coming in to bail whoever the previous pitcher was out of trouble. Most importantly for Okert, personally, is that he is a free agent after this season, and should see a big raise, from somebody, over his $2.3 million salary here in 2026.
3. Peter Lambert
Here at the All Star break, there are two huge concerns for the Astros, both of which need to be addressed by the trade deadline for the Astros to contend — a lack of offense from the outfield and massive inconsistency in the starting pitching rotation. Perhaps no other fact epitomizes the starting pitching concerns than this — in a starting rotation with a Top 3 Cy Young finish in 2025 (Hunter Brown), and three other candidates making more than $17 million per season (Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Lance McCullers), the most reliable arm right now is a guy the team cut back in March, Lambert. In 15 starts, Lambert has an 8-5 record with a 3.14 ERA, but more importantly, there haven’t been the wild swings in performance start to start that we’ve seen from Imai and Brown. In his last 12 starts, Lambert has gone at least five innings in 11 of them, and the one he didn’t, he fell one out short of five innings. Lambert has been a godsend.
2. Josh Hader
Back to the bullpen with this selection of Hader, who returned from the injured list on June 3 to pitch for the first time since last August. The team was very cautious in bringing him back, as it was two injuries that set Hader back, a shoulder last August and a biceps in spring training. His final appearance before he break notwithstanding, in which he gave up the winning run against the Rangers, Hader has been sensational — 3-1 record, 1.17 ERA, 10 for 10 in save opportunities, and over 15 strikeouts per nine innings. He’s earning his $19 million salary, for sure.
1. Yordan Alvarez
There’s not much to say about the other worldly Alvarez that we haven’t said in this space already. He is the runaway leader to win MVP of the American League, and the season’s break, he’s a few batting average points shy of being on pace to win the Triple Crown (batting champ, home run leader, RBI leader). He leads the league in nearly every offensive category, all while galvanizing his reputation as one of the most discerning, high baseball IQ decision makers in the batters box. Every Alvarez at-bat is must see. If you need a drink or have to use the restroom, hold off to watch Alvarez hit first.
LOSERS
4. Dana Brown
Of all the management and coaching figures in Houston, I think Brown is undoubtedly on the hottest seat, which should make this trade deadline (August 3, by the way) fascinating. The problem for Brown is that the two biggest issues for the Astros outlined above, starting pitching and outfield offense, were both acknowledged as major issues by Brown back in February. His response for each was to either do nothing (outfield) or do a bunch of things that haven’t worked (starting pitching). Brown signed or traded for at least five different candidates to start for the Astros:
Peter Lambert — 8-5, 3.14 ERA
Tatsuya Imai — 5-4, 6.06 ERA
Mike Burrows — 4-9, 5.99 ERA
Kai-Wei Teng — 4-6, 4.36 ERA
Ryan Weiss — 0-3, 7.62 ERA (no longer with organization)
As you can see, Lambert is the only one that’s been remotely serviceable, although Teng was doing well as a reliever until they stretched him out to fill massive injury holes in the rotation in May.
3. Carlos Correa
With the “out of nowhere” acquisition of Correa at last season’s trade deadline, owner Jim Crane kept alive his streak of doing SOMETHING attention grabbing in-season to give the Astros an adrenaline boost for the playoff run. Unfortunately, since Correa’s arrival, which I was in favor of, especially with the Twins picking up a third of his salary, the Astros have missed the playoffs in 2025, and watched Correa suffer a season ending injury in 2026.
Correa tore an ankle ligament in May, swinging a bat in the batting cage, of all things. Eventually, Correa will be on the bench with his teammates, and as another set of eyes for manager Joe Espada, but thus far, the re-acquisition of Correa has been, at best, a null set.
2. Lance McCullers
With reports Wednesday morning that McCullers was being traded to Milwaukee, the McCullers Era is now water under the bridge. Nevertheless, he is absolutely worth mentioning in this section. To be clear, McCullers will always have a soft spot in the hearts of longtime Astros fans for his yeoman’s work in the 2017 postseason and his genuine love for Houston. Also, to be clear, I hate having to have added that caveat in every McCullers take for the last four years, because the fact of the matter is that McCullers has either been injured or pitched, by and large, atrociously for the Astros since the 2022 World Series. Huge credit for sticking with numerous rehabs to make it back onto the field. Many athletes would have just cashed their $17 million checks and called it a day. McCullers did not.
That said, even McCullers himself in spring training seemed resigned to the fact that the “old Lance” was never walking through that door again. His 6.86 ERA is evidence that he was right. In the end, Lance had some great moments, made a lot of money for very few actual games pitched, and if he wants, has a bright future in either coaching or broadcasting. Whatever it is, I’ll bet on him, so long as it’s not an occupation that requires a healthy right arm.
1. Bryan Abreu
In the museum of “2026 Astros disappointments,” Abreu is the Mona Lisa. With Hader sidelined for the first two months of the season, Abreu had a chance to (a) help his ball club by assuming closer’s duties, and (b) had a chance to help his own wallet by showing MLB he could be a legit closer, important because Abreu is a free agent after the seaosn. Instead, Abreu ran his ERA up over 12.00 in the first month of the season, and was literally rendered unusable, because he was so bad. How bad? Remember how awful Rafael Montero was in 2024, after he got his big contract? Abreu made Montero look like Mariano Rivera.
