MLB rumors: Top-3 items on the Houston Astros offseason wish list

1. Addressing the bullpen

A sneaky area to watch for the Astros this winter is the bullpen. Relievers Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents while Hector Neris is expected to decline an $8.5 million player option to become a free agent.

Of course, the Astros have strong internal options in Rafael Montero, Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. They re-acquired reliever Kendall Graveman at the trade deadline. So they have a strong core of four relievers. But it would not be surprising to see the Astros attempt to re-sign one or two of the above relievers to keep the unit relatively intact heading into 2024.

Expect the Astros to poke around the bullpen market this winter, however, as their bullpen has been an important part of their long-sustained success.