Astros Offseason Trade Acquisition Starting To Show Positive Developments at Plate

The Houston Astros have had a very odd start to their 2025 campaign.

After an offseason full of moves, they have put themselves in a position where they are not bad, but also not particularly great, either. They have been riding the .500 line record-wise for pretty much all of the first month and a half, sitting at 20-19 entering play on Monday.

Despite that, they remain in second place among the American League West teams.

One of the most notable moves aside from the Ryan Pressly trade was sending Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs, and in return, receiving some promising young prospects and players.

The Astros got back Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith and Hayden Wesneski, which, all things considered, was not a horrible deal despite Tucker being outstanding so far this year.

Getting return assets for a player who may not have signed a deal beyond this year is generally a good use of assets.

Now, some of those pieces have begun to put things together for Houston, and in doing so, have helped the team rapidly improve at the plate.

Paredes has been rather impressive in his turnaround, and a few key metrics have been the reason behind this resurgence.

How Has Isaac Paredes Started To Improve?

There is one key trait that is allowing Paredes to hit the ball rather well in recent weeks; his discipline.

Despite having a poor exit velocity, sitting in the fifth percentile according to Baseball Savant, all of his discipline or discipline adjacent metrics have proven to be above league average in many cases.

The most notable of which is his whiff percentage, where he is in the 93rd percentile at only 15.2%. His chase rate is not far behind, either, remaining in the 84th percentile at 21.8%.

His walk rate has been outstanding in the 90th percentile (14.5%), as has his strikeout rate (74th percentile - 17.5%).

Outside of these four metrics, there is only one other statistic where he has proven to be well above average; his launch angle sweet spot percentage.

He's in the 82nd percentile where 39.6% of the time he's registering in that metric.

This is also discipline based to an extent since it revolves around the ability to get the barrel to the ball at the right time and right angle to ensure the ball travels well.

This is critical to his success at the plate, and despite a somewhat pedestrian .264 batting average, he is posting a .380 on-base percentage with 24 walks in 140 at-bats.

His ability to see pitches well is improving over the course of the season early on, and given more time, he may be able to use that to improve his overall play.

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