The Houston Astros were my pick to win the American League West last year. In fact, I thought they would be the team losing to the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. However, they were hampered by a dismal 7-17 April and went on to go just 4-15 against the Texas Rangers. If you take away their 11-29 combined record between that slow start and their struggles against the Rangers, they were an impressive 73-49 the rest of the year and against everyone else, one of the best records in baseball.

They did that despite defending Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel dealing with shoulder soreness on the way to posting a 9-12 record with a 4.55 ERA, and despite top pitching prospect Lance McCullers Jr. being limited to just 14 starts because of his own shoulder problems. Both Keuchel and McCullers are expected to be healthy and back to their dominant selves in 2017.

That’s already going to make a big difference. But in the meantime the Astros made three impressive moves this week to bring them closer to the Rangers, at least on paper: They hired Alex Cora as bench coach, agreed to terms with free-agent outfielder Josh Reddick on a four-year deal and then traded for catcher Brian McCann of the Yankees. All three of these moves are significant, both on and off the field.

The Astros needed to improve what they got from the catcher slot, and with McCann they get a catcher who has hit at least 20 home runs for nine consecutive seasons with a respectable career slash line of .266/.340/.459. The seven-time All-Star has won six Silver Slugger awards, including his last one just a year ago. Just as important, he also does a good job of calling a game and handling a pitching staff. The only reason the Yankees dealt McCann was to make room for rookie phenom Gary Sanchez, who’s ready to take over in the Bronx and is a better all around player with more upside than McCann at this point.

The Yankees have been stockpiling pitching and they get two decent arms in return in Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman, but both are low minor leaguers who have control and command issues. To acquire the two fringe prospects and move McCann’s inflated contract they had to agree to pay approximately $5.5 million of the $17 million that the Yankees owe McCann over the next two seasons, so the Astros didn’t take the full payroll hit in this trade.

The Astros also agreed to terms with outfielder Josh Reddick, paying him a market deal of $13 million per season and were able to get it done this early because they were the only team that offered him the fourth year of the contract. Reddick has won only one Gold Glove award, but is still an above average defender with a shut-down arm, is a good makeup player in the clubhouse and he destroys right-handed pitching. This past year Reddick slashed at a .322/.386/.485 clip against right-handed pitching. Although he hit only 10 home runs, he belted 20 the year before with Oakland. Reddick had a great first half with the A’s last year, but had a tough time adjusting after he was traded to the Dodgers, with both the new league and having to platoon after being used to playing every day.

Reddick will replace the recently departed Colby Rasmus, who just became a free agent. Reddick will make close to $3 million less than Rasmus did last year, and is a much better player in most facets of the game, including defense, throwing arm, speed, base running and hitting ability. Rasmus might have had a little more power but it’s close.

The McCann and Reddick acquisitions do a lot of things for the Astros at once: It improves the bottom part of the lineup, improves outfield defense, what they’ll get from the catching position on both sides of the ball and improves the clubhouse with two great people.

Finally, the hiring of bench coach Alex Cora will be significant in so many areas of the team’s coaching, developing and training, including but not limited to the development of shortstop Carlos Correa, improving the team defense and being a strong wingman and sounding board for manager A.J. Hinch.

So, what’s the net? Trading two fringe pitching prospects for an All-Star catcher, making a market signing to get an upgrade in the outfield, and making a great addition to their coaching staff. It looks like the Astros’ offseason is off to a tremendous start.