Yulieski Gurriel agrees to 5/$47M deal with the Astros

Choo was in the majors well before he signed with the Rangers. If I remember correctly, the Astros were after him, too, when he was a free agent in 2013.

 

Choo was in the Majors since he was 22 in 2005 lol. He was a very well established player and an OBP monster for years before signing with the Rangers.

 

We offered him over $100M, IIRC

 

According to his instagram he should be reporting to training camp today or very soon (yesterday he said it was his last day in Miami before reporting)

 

Kinda hard to hear what he was saying, but for the Astros part at the end he was pretty much saying that he was impressed with the way they played in 2015.
They seem to be very close (tagging each other a lot), so it would be amazing if he came in a package deal.

 

I'd be very surprised if they didn't know how Lourdes played into the deal before they signed Yuli. The fact that both sides are still talking about Lourdes possibly joining him makes me think it's a done deal that they're signing Lourdes too. I just wish we could get a better idea of how good of a prospect Lourdes really is and how close to major league ready he is. Would be pretty sweet if he could be an opening day starter in the outfield.

 

I've heard he's more valuable than Yuli due to age. Yuli's contract is worth that of 20-50th best prospect. I've also heard that he's close enough to being ready that the fact that they both play infield may have limited the number of teams after them.

 

Lourdes played OF almost exclusively his last year or so in Cuba.

Here's who Jesse Sanchez of mlb.com compared him to back in February:

http://www.gaslampball.com/2016/6/9/11899654/mlb-draft-san-diego-padres-pick-florida-buddy-reed-48th

 

Tears.

All we need is an ace pitcher and another arm and we are set for the next 5-10 years.

We've come a looooooooong way.

It might be time to splurge some top prospects. There's just little room right now for the other guys at surplus positions.

 

The Astros could actually be both buyers and sellers. They can upgrade the starting pitching staff and also get prospects for Valbuena and Feldman. If they do, they bring Reed back up and let him share 1B with Marwin until Gurriel is ready. Devenski can take Feldman's place in the bullpen.

 

Only thing here is Valbuena is ice cold (in a good way when it comes to being clutch) and is having a really good year. We need him just in case someone goes down with an injury too.

If he leaves, we probably get a pick.

 

I don't see any plausible situation where they would trade Valbuena.

 

Yep, with two months left there is absolutely no reason to trade Valbuena while in a pennant race.

 

Valbuena is not the type of bat that other teams would be willing to take on as a rental. He has much more value on this roster under the current circumstances.

 

What if Bergman comes in and plays lights out on offense AND defense (3B). Gurriel is coming up and can back up Bergman and can also play 1B. Sure you can DH Val but what if some other team makes a really good offer?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see him go but the it is going to be hard deciding who plays in the infield outside of 2B and SS every night.

 

IMO if Val can hit at a solid rate to assure himself a spot in the line up, then he has to be at 3B. His glove is just that good, and if he's hitting well, all the more reason.

Then, if like you said Breg is hitting extremely well he can DH or play LF, depending on who is slumping and Gurriel can play first. Just my opinion of course.

 

Outside of the last couple games, Gattis has been weak. Rasmus has been weak. Gomez has been weak. This team can still use Val, Gurriel, and Bregman, regardless of Bregman tearing it up. Val isn't going to be valuable on the trade market, so doesn't make much sense to trade him when we could potentially roll out a lineup of:

Springer
Bregman
Altuve
Correa
Gurriel
Valbuena
Gattis
Rasmus
Gomez

That's a beast lineup...and I'd prefer going with that than with the removal of Valbuena for a very marginal upgrade somewhere else.