Agreed 100%. Seems like a pretty easy decision to make in reality. As for Harrell, good riddance. I'm glad Paul Clemens gets to stay with the 25 when Feldman comes back.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I was hoping they'd call him up ASAP...because, given that he's going to attain Super Two status barring something crazy, we didn't buy anything. As of now, at the end of 2016 season, he'll have >2 seasons of service time, and Super Two status will make him arb eligible at that point. (and a free agent after 2019) In short, assuming he attains Super Two status by ranking in the top 22% of 2-year players in terms of service time (which he will unless he flops and gets sent down), the decision to wait 2 weeks at the start of the season won't matter.
Isn't insurance against him sucking in of itself worth something? The last time I checked, Springer isn't exactly a Bryce Harper level of prospect where there's near zero chance of flopping coming out.
As I just posted on the Astros Forum, predictions for the lineup when he makes his debut? I'd like to see... CF - Fowler LF - Hoes 2B - Altuve C - Castro RF - Springer 1B - Guzman DH - Carter 3B - Dominguez SS - Villar
you're right--but he'd have to be god-awful to get sent back to AAA on this team. So I don't see it happening unless he spends 2 months below the mendoza line or something
Super 2 does make him arb eligible sooner, but the club still controls him for 7 years (with 4 arb years instead of 3)... At least that's what I recall from the recent McTaggert article. Regardless, if he performs well, I do expect the club to eventually work out a deal to buyout the arb years and one of his free agent years (and it will be for more than $23 million). Anyways, good to see them finally become proactive on some of the "not so ready for prime time" performers they've had up. I actually like Grossman's bat... But his slump, combined with his spotty defense made the decision easier. Harrell was nothing but 3 wasted starts. Not sure what they were expecting to see that they didn't already know based on his 20+ starts last year and iffy ST this year. Also puts Krause/Guzman/Carter on notice that if they don't start turning it around soon at the plate, they could also be shuffled out (although I do expect them to wait on Singleton till after the all-star break).
Ah, you're right--forgot about that. To me, it wouldn't matter given that even in the worst case, they would buy out the last year or 2 or free agency. But you make a good point. While I was thinking they'd let him play out his early years and 1 or 2 of his arb years... most prospects are having arb years and free agent years bought out nowadays. In which case Super 2 may not matter in the end.
Oh, he'll play. They're not (finally) starting his clock to have him sit on the bench with LJ Hoes (or are they?). My guess is they'll have an OF of Pressley/Fowler/Springer, and he will bat 6th or 7th. (But could be as high as 4th with Altuve moving to the #2 spot... Not like anybody in this lineup is "untouchable", with the exception of Fowler leading off).
Given that the Astros aren't going to do jack squat this year anyway, I would say having Springer miss 11 big league games probably isn't going to hurt the Astros. To me this seems like a no-risk move unless Springer becomes a stud and the Astros end up losing a playoff spot by 2 games or something. I see the odds of that happening as 0%.
