I do not think it would be smart to trade Jake Meyers. But at a glance, the Twins, Royals, and Brewers might be fits. Meyers should be a valuable trade chip; he’s a high floor player due to his defense and his ceiling is very high due to his power. So I would peg him with ~$30M in surplus value. Some hypothetical trades I think would be fair: Twins get: CF Jake Meyers Astros get: IF/OF Austin Martin OF Ariel Castro OF Brandon Winokur Royals get: CF Jake Meyers Astros get: P Frank Mozzicato P Ben Kudrna P Henry Williams Brewers get: CF Jake Meyers Astros get: 3B Brock Wilken IF Cooper Pratt P Coleman Crow I doubt any of those teams would do that deal, but that’s the kind of return I would demand if I were Houston.
Meyers has a .727 ops this year against right handed pitchers. He had an .880 ops in over 300 plate appearances against righties in 2021 in the minor leagues. I'm not quite as sold on him never being able to get it together against right handed pitchers. I'm also not too concerned in general about platoon splits for right handed batters against right handed pitchers. That is usually cause for concern more with lefties.
My only issue/question here is are any of those prospects guys who are likely to help us win now? If not, then if we want to do something like that down the road if we never got back in the race, then fine. But if we move him now i'd only do it for someone that fits our roster better and could improve us immediately I am not banging the drum for trading Jake because I don't like him, i've stated many times he needs to play more But Fact is they aren't playing him on a daily basis, he has started basically half of our games. He also is part of the logjam that crushes LHP and struggles vs R And if he hasn't played every day to this point, even with Chas out injured, and with Loperfido and potentially Pedro up soon both being CF guys And our top prospect, Melton, a CF I don't see him all of the sudden becoming an everyday player for us, that's why i'd like to see if he could bring back a piece that would help more now
It's usually a bigger concern for LH Hitters because they don't get to see LHP nearly as much as a RH hitter sees RHP while they develop It's hard to look past the fact that this team rips LHP and struggles more vs RHP though. Maybe you are right about Jake being able to be a better than average hitter vs RHP, but if we aren't going to play him on a daily basis like the supposed plan was, we could likely find a move to make our roster better
Both helped make Bielak expendable. I should have looked it up, just going by memory that I had read both had starting experience. Turns out it was insignificant experience at best. Still my point stands. All we really need is a couple of middle relievers. Potentially adding Leon and having Loperfido available at first leaves me comfortable everywhere except 3rd base and although chances are better for Bregman to return to form than Abreu. I would be getting some possibilities for a trade for a young 3rd baseman lined up in anticipation of making a move closer to the deadline.
I see that Myers 2 seasons being removed from his devastating postseason running-into-the-wall injury, is starting to look more like the player that had all of Houston beaming during his rookie season. I think you are very correct, he has restored his value on MLB circles. He’s going to be a productive player for years.
Why wouldn't you want to add a TOR starter? You must have a lot more faith in Hunter and Arrighetti than I do.
A bad contract swap of Springer for Abreu might make sense if Toronto sells this year. Astros get: 1B Vlad Guerrero Jr. OF George Springer $12M Blue Jays get: OF Chas McCormick 1B Jose Abreu
How about these trades: Chas/graveman/ Abreu for nothing (you are basically selling 2.5 years of Chas for 21.5 million in real dollars) but you get out of 27M of luxury tax money. Lance/Brown/presley for nothing. Thats 72M out the door and the other team gets 4.5 years of Brown, 1.5 years of Presley plus whatever Lance gives them in 24-26. after those deals are made announcement of a 10/335M contract extension for Tucker. Astros new roster: JV/Framber/javier/blanco/Urquidy/Garcia- 45M Hader/Abreu/Montero/Scott/Arrighetti/Martinez/someone internally- 35M diaz/caratini/Singleton/altuve/Pena/Bregman- 70M Loperfido/alvarez/Meyers/Dubon/Tucker/who cares/who cares- 60M That’s under the tax bc Bregman makes 30M in real dollars but only counts 20M toward luxury tax. When Bregman walks next year and Tucker’s contract kicks in, JV’s decreases and arbitration raises for Pena, Meyers, Abreu, Framber, Urquidy, and Garcia you are looking at something like 55M for rotation, 60M for outfield, 45M for bullpen and 40M for infield. 20M for extras puts you at 220M or so. Means Dubon is your 3B and you have little room (like less than 10M) if you want to stay under tax.
Trade deadline 10 weeks away, very early list of who might be available: C: Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire, Martin Maldonado, Tyler Stephenson, Jacob Stallings, Elias Diaz IF: Vlad Jr.*, Bo Bichette, Justin Turner, IKF, Paul DeJong, Luis Rengifo*, Miguel Sano, JD Davis, Pete Alonso*, Ildemaro Vargas, Nick Senzel, Josh Bell, Jake Burger*, Yoan Moncada*, Paul Goldschmidt*, Jeimer Candelario*, Jonathan India*, Brendan Rodgers* OF: George Springer, Tyler O’Neill, Tommy Pham, Starling Marte, Harrison Bader, JD Martinez, Jesse Winker, Eddie Rosario, Joey Gallo, Jazz Chisholm, Jake Fraley SP: Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Bassitt, Nick Pivetta, Tyler Anderson, Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Trevor Williams, Trevor Rogers*, Sonny Gray*, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Miles Mikolas, Marco Gonzales, Martin Perez, Frankie Montas, Austin Gomber, Cal quantrill RP: Yimi Garcia, Michael Kopech, Tim Hill, Carson Fulmer, Adam Cimber, Matt Moore, TJ McFarland, Lucas Erceg, Mason Miller*, Austin Adams, Adam Ottavino, Jake Diekman, Hunter Harvey, Derek Law, Dylan Floro, Kyle Finnegan, Jacob Barnes, Tanner Scott, Andrew Kittredge, Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero, Aroldis Chapman, Buck Farmer, brent Suter, Emilio Pagan
Balancing Houston’s long term and short term needs, it’s be awesome if the net of this years deadline could be: Out: J Abreu, Bregman, McCormick, Urquidy, Pressly In: Jake Burger, Trevor Rogers, salary relief, 2-3 org top 10 prospects
If the Astros aren’t above .500 at the trade deadline you have to start thinking about taking calls on Bregman. IMO you HAVE to keep Tucker. At least try and get SOMETHING for Bregman before he walks for nothing.
Funny. I didn't even get that far in your list of what the Astros were giving up to notice he was included before I looked down and saw what the Astros were receiving.
