Dana Brown’s objective is obvious.“We’re focused on making the postseason,” the Houston Astros’ general manager said last week in Washington. “That’s the end-all, be-all. We have to make the postseason. Anything other than making the postseason would be a failure, in my opinion. We have to get to a point where we make the postseason.”If the Astros do not, Brown and manager Joe Espada may find themselves out of work. Each is in the last year of his contract and works for one of the sport’s most demanding owners. Just making the postseason may not be enough to satisfy Jim Crane, but it is the bare minimum that must be accomplished.Houston (47-51) has 64 games to do it. FanGraphs gives the club a 25.2 percent chance to reach the playoffs — a number it must improve by its on-field performance and additions before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Here are four second-half storylines to monitor.Prioritize pitching or outfield?Houston’s starting rotation has the second-highest ERA in the American League and the lowest strikeout-to-walk ratio in the sport. Its outfield has MLB’s lowest batting average, second-lowest on-base percentage and third-lowest OPS.Both areas are in obvious need of a boost, but the Astros’ paucity of prospect capital — and hesitance to trade from an already top-heavy major-league team — will make it difficult for Brown to address both positions before the deadline.During the Astros’ series last week in Washington, Brown reiterated that his team’s “main need” is a left-handed-hitting outfielder. He then witnessed all three of his starting pitchers fail to finish five innings against the Nationals. One of them, Mike Burrows, was demoted to Triple-A Sugar Land after his start and is now on the injured list with an elbow injury.Deciding which area to prioritize may depend on two things: the availability on the trade market and the level of Houston’s faith in some of its internal options.After failing to acquire pitching at last season’s trade deadline, Brown acknowledged he erred in relying on pitchers returning from injury to provide a meaningful boost. Would he be willing to wage the same gamble this season with Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski, Bennett Sousa and Lance McCullers Jr.?Is right-handed pitching prospect Ethan Pecko, whom the Astros have had internal conversations about promoting, prepared to take on a meaningful role amid a playoff push? Or maybe left-handed-hitting outfielder Lucas Spence, who has struggled in his first few weeks at Triple-A Sugar Land but could be primed for a call-up at some point in the second half.Answering those questions may help Brown and his baseball operations team formulate a plan.How much history will Yordan Alvarez author?No player has won the Triple Crown since Miguel Cabrera did it in 2012. No Astro has hit 45 home runs in a season since Lance Berkman in 2006. Six years earlier, Jeff Bagwell slugged 47 homers to establish a single-season franchise record that still stands.Berkman’s and Bagwell’s benchmarks are on borrowed time. Yordan Alvarez’s remarkable first half has him on pace to shatter the Astros’ home run record and, perhaps, join Cabrera in one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs. Only 17 players have won the Triple Crown. Before Cabrera, no one had done it since 1967.Alvarez leads the American League in two of the three Triple Crown categories: home runs (31) and RBIs (70). Though Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz has a four-point edge over Alvarez in batting average, they are the only two American League hitters at or above .300. Alvarez is hitting .318, and Díaz is at .322.Alvarez is already the first player in Houston’s 65-year history to hit 30 home runs before the All-Star break. Presuming Alvarez stays healthy, he could continue to rewrite the franchise record book across the season’s final 64 games.If Alvarez can capture the Triple Crown, he would almost guarantee himself another accolade: the third MVP in Astros history.Will Tatsuya Imai remain on the active roster?Imai’s $18 million paycheck is perhaps the only thing preserving his spot in the Astros’ starting rotation. He has thrown fewer than five innings in seven of his 13 starts — and failed to finish three innings in four of them.Houston has somehow won eight of Imai’s 13 starts, but that doesn’t represent the damage Imai inflicts upon the Astros’ bullpen when he fails to provide length. He has thrown a pitch in the sixth inning just five times all season. Imai is also receiving 9.5 runs of support per nine innings pitched, according to Baseball Reference. No pitcher in the sport is getting more.Imai owns a 6.06 ERA and a 70 ERA+, which means it is 30 percent below league average. Imai is walking 5.7 batters per nine innings, allowing a 45.9 percent hard-hit rate and a .353 on-base percentage to his opponents. The major-league average is .319.Growing pains were always expected for Imai, who is the first player the Astros have signed straight from Nippon Professional Baseball, but it is difficult to imagine that team officials expected them to this extent.Though Imai is clearly more comfortable inside the clubhouse and has formed a good rapport with teammates, this is a results-based business. Urgency will increase after the All-Star break, which may force the Astros to ask themselves whether Imai can keep pitching every fifth or sixth day.Getting Blanco and Wesneski back from injury — and, perhaps, another starter at the deadline — will only intensify that question.Stowing Imai in the bullpen is a risk given how few strikes he throws. Imai’s contract does allow him to be optioned to the minor leagues — but only if he consents. If Imai does not show more consistency, it is a conversation Houston may be forced to have.Can Jose Altuve turn it around?Altuve just finished one of the worst first halves of his fabulous career. Couple that with a forgettable final two months of 2025, and it creates an uncomfortable conversation around the longtime face of Houston’s franchise.Since Aug. 1, 2025, Altuve has amassed a .702 OPS in 524 plate appearances. His 95 wRC+ in that span is below league average. Three more seasons remain on the five-year, $125 million contract he signed before the 2024 season.Altuve has long been one of baseball’s premier contact hitters, but he boasts just a .235 batting average this season. He has never finished a 162-game season with anything lower than a .265 clip — and that came last season.This season, Altuve is striking out a career-high 22.1 percent and whiffing at a career-worst 24.2 percent. To correct the issues, Altuve has taken more early on-field batting practice than in recent memory and tinkered with lessening his leg kick to improve his timing.Altuve is in no danger of losing playing time, and his stature within the franchise affords him a longer runway than anyone in the organization. Espada has moved Altuve down to fifth in the batting order — lower than he has ever regularly hit in his major-league career — and is beginning to remove him late in games for defensive purposes.Aside from that, little can be done other than hoping Altuve authors a rebound. The presence of Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes means Altuve doesn’t have to carry Houston’s lineup like he once did. But as is the case with most things in this organization, this team cannot function unless Altuve resembles something closer to himself.