The Houston Astros are shoring up their roster as they prepare for a possible World Series run.
On Monday, the Astros acquired Trey Mancini in a 3-way deal with Baltimore and Tampa Bay. The team later acquired catcher Christian Vazquez in a trade with the Boston Red Sox.
Vazquez is batting .282 with a .759 OPS and has 20 doubles and eight home runs this season. He is a reliable catcher with a solid bat. He has a career .262 batting average and .700 OPS.
Martin Maldonado is the Astros’ current starting catcher. Though he has 10 doubles and 10 home runs, he’s batting just .173. Backup catcher Jason Castro is out with a knee injury, so Houston had a need for catching depth.
While Castro and Michael Brantley are injured, and with Yuli Gurriel and Martin Maldonado performing below expectations, Houston has worked to address some of their weaknesses.
Houston entered play on Monday 67-36, which is the third-best record in MLB, trailing just the Yankees and Dodgers. In an interesting twist, rather than catch Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi in the game, Vazquez may end up batting against him.
