José Abreu agrees to be optioned to Minors to work through struggles
HOUSTON -- Astros first baseman José Abreu agreed to be optioned to the Minor Leagues, general manager Dana Brown said Tuesday. The move will be effective on Wednesday, with a corresponding roster move to be announced then. Abreu will report to the Astros' Spring Training facility in West Palm Beach,
HOUSTON -- Astros first baseman José Abreu agreed to be optioned to the Minor Leagues, general manager Dana Brown said Tuesday. The move will be effective on Wednesday, with a corresponding roster move to be announced then.
Abreu will report to the Astros' Spring Training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., to try to get his timing back amid his early-season struggles.
“We think [once] we can get José in this environment, that there’s a lot of good things that can come out of this,” Brown said. “Both sides were in agreement to get this done. We’re actually confident that we can get him down there and work on specific things like rhythm and timing and keeping your head on the ball. … Hopefully, we will have him back up here as soon as possible.”
Houston manager Joe Espada said it will be similar to Spring Training for Abreu.
“We want to control the volume of at-bats he gets,” Espada said. “We will have the coordinators there with him, guys hitting ground balls. We’re going to progress into the volume that he needs. We want to get it right. … We will let José dictate how many at-bats [he gets] and how to progress from one day to another.”
Brown said optioning a veteran like Abreu is rare, but it speaks about him as a human being.
“He was frustrated,” Brown said. "He was wearing it. … It’s rare to do it, but I think it tells us about his dedication and commitment. I don’t think he sees this as a long-term [thing], and I don’t think we see this as a long-term thing.”
Abreu is hitting .099 with a .269 OPS, one extra-base hit and three RBIs over 22 games to start the season.
“It’s been a struggle for him,” Brown said. “There’s no doubt about it. I’ve been in the game a long time, and it’s hard to watch a veteran player go through this. So when you watch him go through this, and you know we need to get this guy fixed, it’s tough to get fixed at the Major League level.”
Brown said there was no timeline for how long Abreu would be in the Minors.
Brown said the meeting happened Monday between members of the coaching staff, front office and Abreu.
“He is unselfish, and he’s a teammate’s guy,” Brown said. “He wants to get himself back to what he was doing last fall. In the midst of this conversation, you could see that this guy is passionate and determined to get back to helping this team. He unselfishly was on board with an agreement [of] going back to West Palm Beach and getting some extra at-bats and getting some detailed instruction on what we can do to get him back.”
The 37-year-old Abreu is a three-time All-Star, former American League MVP (2020) and Rookie of the Year (2014) during an impressive nine-year stint with the White Sox. Abreu’s production declined in 2023, the first of a three-year, $58.5 million deal he signed with the Astros, when he slashed .237/.296/.383 with 18 home runs and 90 RBIs in 141 games.
Brown said he was “optimistic” they could get Abreu back to where he was because of his bat speed, and Espada agreed.
“All the metrics, that’s what it says,” Espada said. “We are looking at his swing path, when he gets the barrel on the ball, the way the ball is coming off the bat. Everything shows that it’s there. It’s just trying to get him timed, trying to get him to repeat his swing. That’s what we are trying to do. Put him in an environment where he can get as many at-bats as he wants and just try to get his timing down where he can feel comfortable and come up here and be the player that we saw last year at the end of the season.”
The Astros have struggled at first base so far in 2024, with no home runs from the position.
In Abreu’s absence, Espada said Jon Singleton, who will start Tuesday at first, would get playing time at the position, but there were other players on the roster who could also see playing time at first. That could include Mauricio Dubón and Joey Loperfido, who the Astros called up from Triple-A Sugar Land on Tuesday to make his Major League debut.
“We need to get some production out of first base,” Brown said. “We will do whatever we have to do.”
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