Lance Berkman met with Astros owner Jim Crane last week and discussed a potential return to the club.

"He was just seeing where we were at," Crane told KRIV-TV in Houston. "He expressed some interest in maybe working a deal out. We haven't gotten to that (contract discussion). I think his knee is still up in the air. So we've got to get that all worked out. It was a get-acquainted meeting, really."

Berkman, a Texas native who played collegiately at Rice in Houston, was a first-round pick of the Astros in 1997.