The Incredible Astros Dynasty Has Ended Tragically…

As they say, good things inevitably come to an end. The Houston Astros of this season are a living example of it, as their early exit from the MLB Playoffs most likely signals the end of their extraordinary run of dominance.

These Astros have been yearly challengers for the World Series for a long time. In fact, their elimination this season signals the end of an amazing seven-year streak of qualifying for the ALCS.

We haven’t witnessed this level of performance from any team in a long time, much less one that was once the league’s laughingstock.

It appeared that the Astros would easily defeat a Tigers team that didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs going into this best-of-three series. Not to belittle Detroit in any manner, but they felt they didn’t match up well versus Houston on paper and rode a hot streak to the postseason.

You ignore how matchups appear on paper because of this. The Astros were overthrown and their players sent home early by the Tigers with hardly any sweat. This raises the question: is this the last of the Astros’ great dynasty, or is this just an isolated incident?

By now, the answer feels clear: the Astros are at the end of their historic run as the AL’s best team. Their core players are not getting any younger and some key cogs are set to hit free agency without any guarantee of them returning next year.

Let’s examine the Astros’ current situation in more detail and see why it seems like the end is near.

There Is No More Astros Dynasty
The Astros have been led by some of baseball’s most well-known players for a long time. Currently forming the core of the team are superstar-caliber players Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Jose Altuve.

Just Baseball examined the conclusion of their amazing run back in January, well before the 2024 season got underway. It made natural that an old core would ultimately run out of magic, but this was before a single game was played this year.

Sure enough, the Astros found themselves in the postseason once again, but such an early departure was not something anybody saw coming. They were beat by a younger team that was either hungrier or just hot at the right time.

Departing Players

Long-term Pieces of the Core

Over the years, the core group has slowly started to disband. George Springer, Carlos Correa, Yuli Gurriel and Michael Brantley all found new homes or hung up their spikes.

This leaves the current group, led by Altuve and Bregman, who have are first and second on Houston’s all-time leaderboard in playoff games. The former signed a contract extension that will keep him locked up through the 2029 campaign. He’s going to finish his Hall of Fame-worthy career in Houston.

The same cannot be said for the latter. In fact, the 30-year-old Bregman is set to hit free agency for the first time in his own storied career. He figures to be one of the more sought after options not only at third base, but in all of free agency.

The fact of the matter is that Bregman could very well leave Houston. His “thank you Houston” post on X could very easily be interpreted as a goodbye, but we’ll cross that bridge once we get there.

There’s also Justin Verlander, yet another future Hall of Famer. He struggled to get going during the regular season and was eventually left off of the Astros’ playoff-opening roster. He recently indicated that he’s open to pitch in 2025, and it seems likely that he’s about to leave the Astros for the second time in his career.

Additional Upcoming Free Agents
It’s simple to concentrate on this team’s long-term core members, but many more players—not just Bregman and Verlander—will be leaving in free agency during the next offseason.

Other players around the roster that will be unrestricted free agents include Yusei Kikuchi, Kendall Graveman, Hector Neris, Jason Heyward and Caleb Ferguson. Ben Gamel, who didn’t contribute a whole lot at the big league level, is also part of that list, but his departure isn’t going to sting as much as some of the others.

Arbitration is going to allow Houston to maintain some of their other key assets like Tucker, Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy and Luis Garcia, but the first three can hit free agency after next season. The Astros will play their home games for the rest of the postseason, but now is the time to win.

The front office in Houston is well-funded, so they will undoubtedly make every effort to field a competitive squad the following season and the year after. Financially speaking, there will undoubtedly be a hit as, despite not playing an inning for Houston, Rafael Montero and Jose Abreu will earn a combined $31 million next season.

It remains to be seen if they can hold onto any forthcoming free agents or if they have to search elsewhere in the hopes of striking it lucky with outside signings.

No Internal Assistance Is Coming
They won’t be able to depend on prospects passing through their farm system, for example. The Astros have been a fairly top-heavy team for the last few years. With very little support from the minor levels, the majority of talent has only ever lived in the major leagues.

Not that there haven’t been any recent examples of domestic success stories, but things don’t seem good for the future.

The Astros’ farm system is ranked in the following league-wide positions, per MLB Pipeline:

• 2022 midseason: 30th

• 2023 preseason: 27th

• 2023 midseason: 30th

• 2024 preseason: 27th

• 2024 midseason: 30th

Having just moved on from some notable prospects in Jake Bloss and Joey Loperfido, an empty farm system has gotten even emptier. There’s also Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford, who were shipped to the Mets for Verlander a few years back. The Astros could use them right about now.

Jacob Melton (MLB.com No. 1 Astros prospect) and Brice Matthews (No. 3) are two of the position player prospects closest to the big leagues. Walker Janek (No. 2) was just taken in this year’s draft and is multiple years away.

Knowing that their current core only has a year or two left, the Astros are going to have to hope and pray that Melton and/or Matthews is able to come up and make a difference before it’s too late for their present window.