The Houston Astros have an overcrowded infield heading into the 2027 season. The infield includes the four players who see the most playing time by the end of 2026: Christian Walker, Jose Altuve, Jeremy Pena and Isaac Paredes. However, Carlos Correa is returning from injury. The team faces a difficult decision, and it may be in the team’s best interest to cut ties with one of these five so they don’t have a major league starting-caliber player sitting on the bench for the majority of 2027.

Carlos Correa

Correa is a fan favorite, but he’s been injury-prone and has a large salary (four years into a six-year, $200 million. Even though the Astros are only paying two-thirds of that salary, he’d be hard to move.

Isaac Paredes

Paredes had the best offensive numbers of any of the five. He has a club option of 13.35 million for next year. Though rumors have been circling since the last offseason that he’d be on the move, it seems he should stay with the Astros in 2027.

Jose Altuve

Altuve is an Astros legend on a big contract (five-year, $125 million running through 2029) with fading offensive and defensive numbers. There is no way that he gets moved.

Jeremy Pena

Pena is one of the best shortstops in the major leagues. It’s hard to foresee any scenario where he gets moved. He will command a significant arbitration deal in the last year of team control.

Christian Walker

This brings us to Walker. Walker struggled in the final third of the season in 2026.  Walker held a .781 OPS for the season on Aug. 8 and was in the midst of an 11-game hitting streak. But his season cratered after that, posting a .570 OPS the rest of the way with a .181 batting average over the course of 42 games. His batting average on balls in play fell to .183.

Walker did go on a tear in the last week of the season, hitting four home runs and driving in seven over a six-game stretch. He had a 1.320 OPS over the course of 27 plate appearances, but he went 0-for-6 in the playoffs with two walks and three strikeouts to end his season on a sour note. Also, Walker seemed unhappy with the fans in Houston after game one of the Wild Card series.

Walker is two years into a three-year $60 million deal and has just 2.3 bWAR as an Astro despite being healthy in both seasons.

It may be better to cut ties with Christian Walker. The Astros will probably have to eat some of his 2027 salary, but they might get something back in return. This won’t be an easy decision, since it would involve cutting their losses with Walker, but they shouldn’t have five starting caliber infielders on their roster when other areas of their team, such as outfield or starting pitching, are lacking in depth.