The Astros’ focus this offseason has been to strengthen the pitching staff, and they’ve done that in a meaningful way with acquisitions. Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows and KBO highlights Ryan Weiss. They’re not completely done fixing the system yet, though. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Houston is interested in meeting with the veteran catcher Christian Vázquez follows Victor CaratiniFree agent departure. A deal between the two teams isn’t seen as imminent, Rome said, but the interest is notable because it shows an interest in adding a veteran backup to the 27-year-old. Yainer Diaz.
Meanwhile, opt-out options César Salazar he is the only other contributor on Houston’s 40-man roster. Salazar will turn 30 in March and has 67 major league games under his belt. He’s a .232/.318/.268 hitter in that small sample and hasn’t fared much better in the upper minors. He slashed .213/.353/.353 in 186 games for Triple-A last year and has a lifetime .226/.361/.348 in 799 trips to the plate at that level.
Salazar is a good defender who draws enough walks in Triple-A to post solid numbers on the bases. However, the little power he showed early in his career — 27 home runs in 639 minor league games since 2021-22 — has completely dried up in recent seasons. Salazar came to the plate 796 times between the majors and minors over the past three seasons and connected on 15 home runs. His 2025 season in the majors consisted of only 11 games and 16 plate appearances, but Statcast measured his velocity at 22.4 feet per second – the second-slowest mark in Major League Baseball.
Vázquez, 35, is not a walker (24.7 ft/sec) and has a long history of less than bad offense. He hit .189/.271/.274 in 214 plate appearances with Minnesota last season and slashed just .215/.267/.311 in 884 plate appearances over three years with the Twins. Vázquez is an excellent defender, however, and is widely admired for his play calling and team management skills.
While Vázquez won’t move the needle much in terms of Houston’s contending chances, there’s something to be said for bringing in a veteran who can at least handle a bigger job while also providing glovework in the event of an injury to Diaz. Right now, if Houston were to lose Diaz to injury, they would be looking at Salazar and a 2022 sixth-rounder. Collin Price or an unregistered invitee Carlos Pérez as their holding tandem. Price split his time between catching, first base and the outfield. He pulls decent marks but low marks for his pitching and groundball ability. Pérez is a 35-year-old journeyman who hasn’t played in the majors since 2023 and has a career .218/.267/.327 career line in 859 plate appearances.
Vázquez spent the second half of the 2022 season with the ‘Stros and is still familiar with several members of the staff. He grabbed it Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu again Lance McCullers Jr. then, and the current ace Hunter Brown made his MLB debut late in the ’22 campaign. Vázquez also knows the Astros lefty Steven Okert from when the two were together in Minnesota during the 2024 season.
If it’s not Vázquez, some kind of low-cost acquisition sounds smart. Other options in free agency include Jonah Heim, Gary Sanchez, Elias Díaz, Luke Maile, Mitch Garver again Matt Thaiss. It’s also possible that there will be catchers who will be rotating the waiver carousel during spring training, and Houston could jump on any of those names as they become available again.
The Astros want to stay under the luxury tax cap through 2026. RosterResource pegs their current CBT commitments at around $238.5MM – $5.5MM below the $244MM cap. Bringing in another holder should be possible while leaving a decent amount of breathing room for seasonal extras.
