Christian Vazquez signed a minor league contract with the Houston Astros that includes an invitation to Spring Training.
This marks Vazquez's second stint with Houston, after being acquired as a trade deadline pickup during the 2022 season. Vazquez hit .250/.278/.308 over 108 plate appearances with the Astros during the rest of the 2022 regular season and .235/.316/.235 over 19 postseason plate appearances. He was behind the plate for the Astros' combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series that year.
The veteran catcher spent three seasons with the Minnesota Twins after signing a three-year, $30 million free agent deal in the 2022 offseason. He hit .215/.267/.311 over 884 plate appearances during his tenure with Minnesota. In the 2025 season, Vazquez logged +5 Defensive Runs Saved over 519 innings at catcher and threw out 14 of 56 base-stealing attempts.
Vazquez will compete with Cesar Salazar for the backup catching job behind starter Yainer Diaz.