Astros have a deal in place with free agent catcher Robinson Chirinos

If Stassi had options I would agree, but Chirinos could very well be the opening day starter. Luhnow said it himself on Astroline... he's about winning the division first and foremost. That's pretty much in the bag already so he doesn't feel the need to get crazy making moves.

I don't really have a problem with the Chirinos signing if Luhnow can add a Goldschmidt, Cruz, or Brantley. I don't care if Chirinos is the catcher if we add a legit bat to the lineup to go along with Springer, Altuve, Bregman, Correa, and Gurriel. Chirinos is still an upgrade over McCann and Maldonado offensively.

 

I think this is the general consensus. Let’s go Luhnow!! We want a big bat!!

 

Interesting stat: Since 2015, only three catchers have a higher wRC+ than Robinson Chirinos. Gary Sanchez, Buster Posey, Willson Contreras.

 

Lose McCann. Pick up Chirinos. Building up that Harper fund.

 

I think this is our only acquisition at catcher.

How I feel depends on how the rest of the offseason goes. If we don't add another impact bat somewhere else, I'm not happy with it.

 

Hopefully this is one of those underwhelming moves that is a necessary precursor to a bigger one.

 

I'm guessing 2014 was Chirinos best offensive season (or close to it) and Grandal had a bad 2014. Kind of like when someone says Team X has won 2 of the last 3, you know Team X has lost 2 out of the last 4, and likely lost 3 out of the last 5.

 

Not true. 2014 was his worst season in that period and Grandal was better that year.

 

Not really, Chirinos has been very close to Grandal offensively, granted in an easier home park as mentioned. Last season was the first year that Grandal was clearly better.

Chirinos must be a really poor receiver, because prior to last season his CS% wasn't really all that bad either.

 

Looks like my guess is wrong.

 

My guess was incorrect. It is very odd to look at the averages of 5 years of hitting data for catchers with very different ages. It isn't very useful information for saying how good a hitter is now. As such, I guessed it was cherry picked.

Edit: Looking at park-adjusted numbers, Grandal has been the better hitter 4 of the past 5 year by RC+ with an advantage of 115 to 106 during that span (similar gap to Marwin vs Stassi over that time period). Considering the differences in the parks, I'd say using raw numbers is deceptive even though he mentions it as it is a huge difference. I just guessed wrong on how the numbers were being deceptive.

 

Let’s not forget that Chirinos was 2nd in the AL in getting hit by pitches

 

I don't think that is back up money.

He is a very capable hitter, he can get us an .800 OPS if he is used properly, and he is considered to call a good game and is well liked as a leader.

Last year he was horrific throwing runners out, framing pitches and was below average with passed balls and wild pitches.

It is an interesting signing for sure. Jeff Luhnow has said that defense is the #1 thing the Astros want from their catcher but they aren't getting any here with Chirinos.

 

I did not expect him to sign for more than the option the Rangers declined. I guess the single year contract bumped the AAV?

 

Yea, I'm pretty sure he is the starter. I'm hoping it means Luhnow intends to sign or trade for an impact bat and a starter.

Also, I fully expect the Marlins to over play their hand with Realmuto. They will wait too long to move him and once the big free agent catchers are signed and Cervelli is traded some team is going to jump in and get Realmuto for what will be viewed as a low price. Then the moaning on here will begin about how we should have traded for Realmuto even though the price for us was stupid high.

 

Well it tells us about the market. Even though there are a lot of catching options out there, the asking price is obviously quite high and the Astros were not comfortable waiting to see if it would come down.

 

Altuve got his boy paid!

 

So glad we’re finally at the point where we start making totally baseless and unsubstantiated claims.