The Houston Astros are headed to the postseason once again thanks to a Game 162 Rangers loss that pushed the Astros across the finish line. They missed the playoffs last year, but consider it a one-year hiatus. Now, they're back, one year removed from eight consecutive postseason appearances, a stretch in which they went to the ALCS seven times, the World Series four times and won the World Series twice.
This group is nowhere near as dominant as previous iterations. We saw the Astros top 100 wins four times. This group, in fact, will finish as the worst division winner in a 162-game MLB season and the first with a non-winning record (81-81).
They only lost 58 games, playoffs included, in 2022. The 2026 Astros aren't great, but they were just good enough to get here. Given that the team is pretty mediocre and only making the playoffs due to the mediocrity of the American League, it feels likely the Astros won't hang around long in the playoffs.
They do have enough talent to get hot in spurts, though, so let's run down how things could come together. Here are three reasons the Astros could make a deep playoff run: The Yankees could be dangerous, but we've seen enough inconsistency in them to be concerned. The Rays offense disappears for nights at a time.
Those are the two actually good teams in the AL. The Red Sox could look the part and have the pitching, but they have gone through plenty of bad stretches. The AL Central and the rest of the wild-card field are going to be teams flirting with .500.
It's one of the weakest overall leagues we've seen in recent memory. To be clear, the Astros are one of those weak teams and could easily be bounced, but any playoff team has a chance and the Astros could well be the team that gets hot at the right time and takes advantage of a weak league. He will definitely need help, but if we're going to discuss players in the American League who could get hot and carry an offense, there are three names that come to mind: Aaron Judge with the Yankees, Junior Caminero on the Rays and the likely AL MVP, Yordan Alvarez.
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