Three Takeaways From the Houston Astros’ 2025 Season

A big part of this was the struggles of the rotation. While Hunter Brown continued his amazing season — a 2.43 ERA during this stretch — the rest of the rotation had a rough run. Framber Valdez, Jason Alexander, Cristian Javier, and Spencer Arrighetti, who started the majority of the games outside of Brown, combined for a 4.75 ERA.

Simply put, the club didn’t perform well enough down the stretch to compete in October, even after the impeccable position they put themselves in prior to the All-Star game.

Breakout Superstars

While, yes, it was a disappointing season for the Astros, it was also a year in which the organization saw two superstars bloom right in front of their eyes. There’s no debating that a teams’ shortstop is arguably the most important player on the field. After 2025, Houston can say they have one of the best in baseball with Jeremy Peña.

There’s never been a question with the glove, as he’s already racked up +32 Defensive Runs Saved and +13 Outs Above Average throughout his career. However, 2025 marked the first season where he truly put it all together at the plate.

He hit .304, doubled his walk percentage from 2024, and produced at a wRC+ of 135. This, combined with his elite defense, led to a near six-win season (5.7 fWAR). With the departure of a star like Kyle Tucker, Peña stepped up and became the offensive player that Houston desperately needed.

However, he wasn’t the only Astro to come into his own this season.

On the other side of the ball, Hunter Brown put together in impressive season after a few subpar campaigns to begin his career. Across 185.1 innings, he pitched to the tune of a 2.43 ERA with 10 punch outs per nine innings and 4.6 fWAR.

He has officially been named a Cy Young finalist, and while he most likely won’t win, it caps off what was a huge season for the 27-year-old.

With these guys on the roster for the foreseeable future, Houston has two stars to build around and try to make another run at the Fall Classic.

Injuries Galore

While the Astros didn’t perform well enough to make the postseason, their surplus of injuries definitely did not help. This was especially felt in the starting rotation. We previously talked about how much this group struggled down the stretch, but injuries have to be mentioned there.

Ronel Blanco, who was looking to follow up a breakout 2024, and Hayden Wesneski, part of the return for Kyle Tucker, were both expected to be a big part of Houston’s success in 2025. However, both went down with torn UCL’s in the early part of the season.

To add to the pain, the squad’s best masher faced his first truly injury-ridden season since prior to 2021. Yordan Alvarez had played four straight seasons with north of 100 games. However, in 2025, he only managed to be on the field for 48.

It’s also safe to say that he was bothered by the nagging injuries during those 48 games, as he put up a 118 wRC+. While that looks good on paper, it’s nowhere near the 165 wRC+ he averaged from 2019 to 2024.

Add in long-term injuries to Rodgers, Luis Garcia, and Zach Dezenzo, and the Astros’ 2025 seemed like it was doomed from the start. It will be huge for Houston to get the majority of these guys back healthy for the better part of the 2026 season if they want to come anywhere near October baseball.

Final Thoughts

The Houston Astros’ 2025 was a humbling reminder that even Major League Baseball’s most consistent franchises can hit a bit of a wall. For the last decade, the Astros could be described as the standard of sustainable success.

But the cracks showed this year, injuries piled up, and the late-season magic that defined this franchise never came to fruition. However, with Jeremy Peña blossoming into a premier shortstop and Hunter Brown emerging as a definitive ace, the foundation for another competitive stretch has been laid out.

A healthy and retooled roster in 2026 could quickly remind the league why Houston was in the postseason for nine of 10 seasons going back to 2015.