The 37-year-old has been playing winter games in the Puerto Rican league and is leading the league in both home runs, with four, and RBI, with ten. Still, despite his success in that league, he hit just .124 in 113 at-bats for the Astros this season and seemed unable to catch up with velocity in the way he had previously. If he does sign with an MLB team, you’d have to assume it would be a minor league contract.

The 37-year-old from Cuba has accomplished a lot in his career. Abreu is a three-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger award winner, won the Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and Most Valuable Player award in 2020. It’s undeniable that his production has fallen off a cliff over the last two seasons, though. Abreu hit .237/.296/.383 in 141 games last year and his average fell to .124 in 113 at-bats this year. He’s in the second year of a three-year $58.3 million deal, but the Astros recognized the sunk cost and will be on the hook for the remainder of the money still owed to Abreu.

Abreu is definitely swinging the bat better now than he was before he was sent to the minors, but that bar is so low it might as well be underground. Both of his homers have come since his return, a period that’s seen him go 5-for-27 with an 8/1 K/BB. We’re still pretty skeptical that he belongs in the majors at this point.

We’d understand the Astros giving Abreu one more shot at Jon Singleton’s expense, and we’d understand setting up a platoon that sees Singleton play versus righties and Abreu against lefties. What we can’t understand is playing both guys, when it means putting both Chas McCormick and Mauricio Dubón on the bench and taking a defensive downgrade with Yordan Alvarez in left field (and increasing the injury risk for Alvarez). Still, that’s exactly what the Astros have done in both games since Abreu returned from exile. It’s a bad strategy, and the team has paid the price the last two days.