Peacock is a Super 2 and will get a 4th arbitration year in 2020. Astros are not just going to sit on their hands for next two years. I'm not sure if Astros are able to work any of their magic the rest of this off-season or not. By end of next off-season though, Astros should have another catcher or 2, some more pitching, and hopefully an extended Altuve. Astros are in great shape for the short and long term. Farm isn't the best right now, but that farm plus Correa and Bregman makes for one bright future.
That's a good point. They lose a lot of players but only Altuve (and a case could be made for Marwin) are irreplaceable.
I’m in agreement that of all 12 of those guys Altuve is the only one who isn’t replaceable. I’m pretty low on extending Marwin. He is coming off a really lucky year, and I think his SS defense has already deteriorated to the point that in 2-3 years he will be a corner infield bench bat. He will still probably be worth $8-10M/yr but not to Houston. After this season, Houston can replace Marwin with White or Moran or Davis, who can backup 3B/1B/LF like Marwin, and if they need a sub for SS or 2B, Bregman can move over. Keuchel, Verlander will hopefully be replaced by Whitley/Martes/Bukauskas/etc., but if none of those guys pan out it will cause issues, which is why Houston is looking into guys like Darvish. The other guys outside of starting catcher (Gattis, McHugh, Morton, Harris, Smith, Rondon, Sipp) are 2nd or 3rd tier players who can be replaced internally or on the free agent or trade market without costing too much. Starting catcher is the biggest issue. Outside of Lucroy there aren’t any starting quality guys available as free agents this offseason (Avila is more of a very good backup on a contender). Next offseason’s free agents don’t look much better. And trading for a high quality starting catcher under long term control (like Realmuto) is going to cost big in prospects.
All that said, it’s still quite a lot of value needing to be replaced. The 2018 group (Keuchel, Marwin, Gattis, McCann, Sipp, Morton) will probably contribute ~10-12 fWAR this season. The 2019 group (Altuve, Verlander, McHugh, Harris, Smith, Rondon) will account for a similar total. 20-24 wins ain’t small potatoes.
Thinking it is close to 20 wins from a team projected to win 97 to 102 wins. Keeping Altuve and about 50 million AAV in spending on free agents should easily have the Astros at a 90-win team. With farm, Astros should have enough to develop and trade for starting pitching to push Astros over 90 wins. As long as Astros operate efficiently, no reason Astros shouldn't be contenders for the next 4 years while they build up the next Astros core. Granted, I'm not opposed to getting Realmuto or Darvish. Just think Astros are in a very good place to pop off another Championship over the next 4 years.
His 2017 OPS was .907. 2016 was .694 and 2015 was .759. His average, slugging and OBP were far and away better in 2017 than the other years. He had MORE plate appearances in 2016 than 2017 and around 40 less RBI, 10 less HRs.
https://amp.mlb.com/263675448-astro...y=news_hou&c_id=hou&__twitter_impression=true 1. WS win 2. AL MVP 3. Overcome Harvey 4. Verlander trade 5. Bagwell HOF Personally, I would have Game 2, Game 5, ALCS Game 2, and 24 straight curves in top 5 after number 1.
Peacock's finish of game 3 of the WS gets easily forgotten... but also represents one of the more implausible moments of this last season. Would never have guessed that as a possibility of happening heading into the season.
What he did in 2017 was just as improbable as it was awesome. I was one of many that didn't understand why they were wasting a 40-man spot on this bum going into the season. There were no signs of him becoming anything more than AAA depth. I don't know if he's closer to his 2017 or the rest of his career, but what he accomplished in 2017 puts him in Astros lore forever.
And the fact that the Astros front office, manager and coaches tend to have a pretty good plan and know a lot more than any of us.
