Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow indicated that Gurriel would be on the Astros’ 25-man roster as soon as he was able to get a work visa and get his bat up to speed via, in Luhnow’s words, “a shortened version of spring training.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that Bregman will be blocked, however.
Luhnow mentioned Gurriel’s ability to play multiple positions several times on Saturday, describing him as a five-tool player who is “very good at all positions in the infield, and he can play the outfield.” It is unclear whether or not Gurriel actually played the 89 games in centerfield in 2005 that he is credited with on his Baseball-Reference page (he is credited with a similar workload at third base for that season despite having played just 89 games in total), but it seems clear that the Astros intend to use him as something like an everyday super-utility player, and could very well make similar use of Bregman. Luhnow appeared to support that idea saying, “what I want to do is to put as many good players out on the field as possible and let [manager] A.J. [Hinch] and the players sort out where they play every night,” adding, “we’ll make it work.” Hinch similarly praised Gurriel’s versatility in an interview with ROOT Sports before Saturday’s game.
Exactly how those pieces fit together remains to be seen, but first base, designated hitter and centerfield have been underperforming positions for the Astros this season (sOPS+ of 78, 56 and 60, respectively). Adding Gurriel and Bregman offers the possibility of filling two of those three holes in the lineup on a regular basis, most likely with one of them, not necessarily the same one every night, taking third and the other sharing first base and designated hitter with Valbuena. That said, if either proves viable in the outfield, and the Astros did work Gurriel out in the outfield before signing him, Houston could make use of that player in leftfield with Colby Rasmus shifting over to center. Whatever the alignment, it likely means less Evan Gattis, A.J. Reed and Marwin Gonzalez, and possibly even less Carlos Gomez and Jake Marisnick in the Astros lineup down the stretch. Given that those five players have hit a combined .221/.270/.367 on the season, the bar for success will not be set very high for Gurriel or Bregman, both of whom are capable of being impact players in the pennant race.