Let's preview the Houston Astros for 2026 up next on Fantasy Baseball today.

Welcome to On the Beat, our mini team preview series here at Fantasy Baseball today.

I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Matt Kawahara, who covers the Astros for the Houston Chronicle.

Make sure to give him a follow on X at Matthew Kawahara.

And let's start with the Astros offseason here, very active in the rotation.

They brought in Tatsuya Imi from Japan on what could turn out to be a bargain contract,

I think much less than everybody was expecting once we were going into the offseason.

They signed Ryan Weiss from the KBO.

They also acquired Mike Burroughs from the Pirates in that three-team deal.

What have you thought of the Astros off-season thus far? And what are your expectations for

Tatsuya-e-e-e-mi? Yeah, I mean, adding to the rotation was basically their main priority going into the

off-season. I think it was pretty well understood or expected at least

that Frammer Valdez wasn't going to be back after last season, and that was both a lot of

innings and some very high quality performance that they were going to have to go in and try to

replace them. And the way that they've done it is really more by stockpiling depth. You look at the guys that you mentioned, the additions that they made, all are sort of upside plays. They're guys that don't have a lot of much of a track record, really, a Major League Baseball. Emi has not pitched in the majors. Obviously, Ryan Weiss has not pitched in the majors. He had a good year last year in the KBO, but has not made his debut.

Mike Burroughs was a rookie last year with the Pirates.

So these are all guys that they like, but that don't have much of an established pass in the majors.

So they're really counting a lot on upside.

They're counting on these guys to be able to come in and kind of combined to replace what they what they lost at Valdez and they hope take their

realization a step forward by kind of building it up behind Hunter Brown who will be their new

ace what do you think about Tatsuya I just the pitcher and I guess your expectations

for him this season yeah they it's it's project. I mean, you mentioned the fact that kind of coming

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