Of the 55 players to suit up for the Astros in 2024, Trey Cabbage was the 33rd most positive in terms of impact.
This offseason, I’ve been reviewing each of the players to appear in a game for Houston in 2024.
Instead of using bWAR or fWAR again, I decided to use OPS+ and ERA+, multiplied by PA or BF (respectively). In this way, I am able to measure pitchers and non-pitchers on the same scale. So far, we’ve worked our way up through number 34:
55. Grae Kessinger
54. Cooper Hummel
53. Pedro Leon
52. Aledmys Diaz
51. Jacob Ayama
50. Wander Suero
49. Miguel Diaz
48. Dylan Coleman
47. Forrest Whitley
46. Blair Henley
45. Joel Kuhnel
44. Jose Abréu
43. Alex Speas
42. Luis Contreras
41. Nick Hernandez
40. Parker Mushinski
39. Jake Bloss
38. Shay Whitcomb
37. Cesar Salazar
36. Zach Dezenzo
35. Héctor Neris
34. Brandon Bielak
…and that brings us to Trey Cabbage.
Trey Cabbage is a six-foot-two, 204 lb. first baseman and outfielder from Knoxville, TN. Born on May 3, 1997, he was a fourth-round choice of the Minnesota Twins in 2015 out of Grainger High School. In 2016, he was ranked as Minnesota’s number 22 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Granted free agency without sniffing the majors after the 2021 campaign, Cabbage signed on with the Los Angeles Angels,
In 2023, Cabbage led the PCL with 30 home runs while playing with the Salt Lake Bees for the Halos. He also made his major league debut with Los Angeles, hitting .208 over 22 games, with one homer and seven RBI. On January 21, 2024, the Astros traded Carlos Espinosa to the Angels for Cabbage.
Over the course of the regular 2024 season, the Astros recalled Cabbage to the majors five times in total, and played him in 45 games, He slashed out a .209/.253/.337 line, with a 68 OPS+ over 91 plate appearances. Defensively, he played 161 1⁄3 innings in right field, making 24 putouts without an error. He also played 47 frames in left field, with seven putouts, an assist and zero errors. He also spent three games as Houston’s designated hitter.
On June 5, Cabbage hit his first home run for the Astros, going deep with a solo-shot in the fifth inning of a 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. On June 10, he entered the eighth inning of a 1-1 tie against the San Francisco Giants as a defensive replacement in right field. In his lone plate appearance, leading off the bottom of the 10th, he sacrifice bunted the manfred man (Joey Loperfido) to third base, but Cabbage was also safe with a single. So…a failed sacrifice, kind of. Cabbage’s .167 WPA was his best mark of the season.
On June 18, Cabbage hit a single and a double for his first multiple hit game as a member of Houston, but the Chicago White Sox took that game, 2-0. On June 30, Cabbage hit a pair of doubles with two RBI in a 10-5, 11-inning win over the New York Mets.
Advanced metrics have Cabbage with elite marks for average exit velocity (92.8 MPH), barrel percentage (15.4), hard hit percentage (53.8), bat speed (75.9 MPH), and arm strength (91.4 MPH — 92nd percentile). His xSTATS were not really any better or worse than his actual figures, at a .197/.260/.359 level, although his sprint speed (27.9 fps) ranks him in the 65th percentile.
Cabbage showed a lot of promise through what was his “official” rookie season, although four walks versus 34 strikeouts puts a damper on everything. That translates to a 4.4 percent walk-rate and a 37.4 percent strikeout-rate over 91 plate appearances. Even though that’s hardly elite, Houston maintains Cabbage on their current 40-man roster. He’s solidly in the mix for a bench roster spot in 2025.