ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Hello Astros fans. The team began a brutal road trip with a thrilling series win against the Philadelphia Phillies.After securing the victory on Thursday, FanGraphs gave Houston an 88.4 percent chance of making the postseason and 85.7 percent odds to win the woeful American League West. Not bad for a team that dismissed its general manager and does not have its team leader on the field.Most of your curiosity surrounds those two absences. Let’s talk about it.Is Carlos Correa’s return to the lineup an actual possibility since only 15 games remain? Maybe the final road trip if so? — Brian K.It is a very real possibility, Brian. As Correa said last month, “I wouldn’t be doing all this work if I didn’t think there was a chance.”All this work is now being done at the Astros’ spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., where Correa is expected to increase his baseball activities, run the bases and face live pitching during bridge-league games.Correa and manager Joe Espada have insisted the 31-year-old third baseman will require a minor-league rehab assignment in addition to whatever work he completes in West Palm Beach. Given Correa hasn’t played a major-league game since May 4, it is a sensible course of action.Triple-A Sugar Land’s regular season concludes with a six-game homestand from Sept. 15-20 at Constellation Field. The Astros begin their season-ending, six-game road trip on Sept. 21 at T-Mobile Park. Presuming Correa doesn’t have any setbacks, he seems primed for a return during the season’s final six games.How do you envision the Astros using Carlos Correa when he returns? — Keith G.Attempts to ask this question have been unsuccessful, Keith. Espada has avoided answering any of them. Four people are running Houston’s baseball operations department, but the team has made none of them available to discuss the roster.Questions will intensify across this next week, especially if Correa continues to make progress in West Palm Beach. Espada has confirmed that Correa will play third base upon his return, but has not specified what that means for current third baseman Isaac Paredes.Paredes entered Thursday with the team’s second-highest OPS and an enormous responsibility of hitting behind American League MVP front-runner Yordan Alvarez in the batting order.Paredes isn’t coming out of the lineup. Moving him to second base is the most logical solution, even if there is industry-wide skepticism about his ability to play the position. Then again, the Astros’ current second baseman, Jose Altuve, entered Thursday worth minus-16 defensive runs saved, according to Sports Info Solutions. No second baseman in the sport has been worse.If Paredes usurps Altuve at second base, it will mean that one of Altuve or Alvarez will have to play left field. Alvarez has started 22 games there this season. After attempting to move to left field last year, Altuve hasn’t appeared there at all this season. He hasn’t had any pregame work out there, either — at least none that the public has seen.With all of that in mind, the most straightforward setup would be to play Correa at third base, Paredes at second, Alvarez in left field and Altuve as the primary designated hitter. Whether the team agrees — or will even acknowledge it — is a mystery.