ESPN Analyst Grades His Preseason Prediction For Astros

The Houston Astros had a solid year during the 2026 season, which was filled with ups and downs and resulted in an AL West title with an early exit in the 2026 postseason.

Focusing on the 2026 season, ESPN MLB writer David Schoenfield graded his bold prediction for all 30 MLB teams, and for the Astros, he was able to grade quite well as he gave himself an A-.

As for what the bold prediction was, Schoenfield predicted that the Astros would bounce back to win the AL West, in addition to designated hitter Yordan Alvarez hitting 40 home runs for the first time in his career.

Schoenfield definitely did get this prediction right as the Astros did win their division and Alvarez actually exceeded 40 home runs and nearly won the Triple Crown. However, Schoenfield did mention the fact that Houston won the AL West with a record of 81-81 which is not normal as if the Astros were in any other division they would have likely missed the playoffs with that record.

While Schoenfield did in a sense provide a caveat for his prediction, he was fully correct and as a result he gave himself an A- which is a pretty good grade when considering how difficult it is to project team performance a well as player performance especially when it comes to batting.

Moving on from Schoenfield's 2026 prediction and grade, he also included a section for each team that looks ahead to the 2027 season and for the Astros, he does seem to be very optimistic.

In that look-ahead section, Schoenfield alluded to the fact that the Astros will be paying $55 million to Joe Altuve and Carlos Correa, and also that it is hard to see how this team will improve heading into next year, with one of his biggest reasons being the struggles on the mound. While Schoenfield is not optimistic about the Astros, he did say anything can happen in the AL West, which is very true, especially after the 2026 season.

When evaluating what Schoenfield said, he is. not necessarily wrong as the Astros are in a very interesting position heading into free agency with a new GM in Randy Flores. However, it is very early in the offseason and there is time for the Astros to make some moves to put this roster in a much better position than it is currently in heading into next season.

This offseason, the construction of the roster is important, but finding the next manager is just as important, if not more important, so it will be interesting to see how Flores and owner Jim Crane decide to navigate that process while also building the roster ahead of the anticipated lockout that is expected to start in early December.

With all that said, the Astros had a solid 2026 season and have some key decisions to make heading into 2027, but if Houston gets those decisions right, the 2027 season could possibly be even better for the Astros than last season was.

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