Pedro Baez Astros Tenure Ends in Worst-Case Outcome

Back in 2021, in the midst of their incredible five-year stretch of making the ALCS or better, the Houston Astros added a big bullpen arm in the form of Pedro Baez. The signing, worth two years and $12.5 million, was seen another championship addition and set the Astros up for continued success.

Unfortunately, the Baez experiment ended on Wednesday in a worst-case scenario when Houston designated the veteran reliever for assignment.

Pedro Baez Astros

Baez' lack of impact on the organization is what makes this situation worse. In two years, the former Los Angeles Dodger pitched only 6.2 innings. Houston has a week to either trade Baez or let him walk through outright waivers.

Astros News

Shoulder issues held Baez to just 4.1 innings of work a year ago, although he was effective in that small sample size by pitching to a 2.08 ERA. He's only made a trio of appearances this season, but an inflated 11.57 ERA and a fastball that now averages just 90.2 mph was enough cause of concern.

Baez came over to the Astros as one of the best late-inning arms in baseball. He touted a stellar 3.03 ERA in seven years with the Dodgers, while striking out 9.3 batters per nine innings. Baez' fastball consistently clocked 96 mph or better.

It's an unfortunate turn of events for Houston, who is off to a slow 8-9 start this season. Fortunately, the oddsmakers aren't concerned about Houston turning things around and making their sixth consecutive ALCS appearance. FanDuel Sportsbook's MLB Odds show the Astros at +450 (2nd) to win the American League (a trip to the World Series).

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.