If it’s story I will be despondent for a month. Of all the moves we could make in this off-season the only two things I didn’t want to see happen were signing Story or signing a bullpen arm to decent money. If we do both and that’s it… Yeah/ Mullins would be a great add. They should make that happen.
James is projected to make less than a million, so I just do not see the sense in non-tendering him, especially since he has at options left. Bryan Abreu , on the other hand, has exhauted his options, and it looks unlikely that he will break into the line-up, so I expect him to be gone from the 40 man. Such great stuff, such lousy control. Seems like a perfect target for a rebuilding team
If CF, SS and C are our needs, then we are fortunate to be in a position where our top 3 prospects play those exact positions. Leon - CF; Pena - SS; Lee - C. While it's not the best case scenario if we start opening day with these players in those starting roles, it wouldn't be a horrible outcome either (I suspect it's an unlikely case, however). See what the young players can do and then make moves mid-season to address any shortfalls. Financially, we have no choice but to develop young players in order to extend the championship window.
dont think we should rely on unproven rookies when you're a contending team. Sure you can gamble on them if you're the rangers or a bottom dweller team.
I doubt the Astros share many fans view that C is a position of need. By all accounts they love Maldanado and his defense and handling of pitchers, and despite many fans on here not understanding what mlb catcher hitting skills typically are, Castro was one of the top offensive catchers in baseball last year albeit in a small sample size
I'm gonna go with Nah I wish Crane would step in and tell Click something along the lines of "I trust you, and I know you come from a place that was successful not giving out long term deals....but we are keeping the face of the championship right here in Houston" But Nah
Out of the 40-man non active roster pitchers who do you think may surprise and contribute the most? Who do you think has trade value? Solomon Whitley Dubin Bermudez Abreu James Martinez Ivey Paredes Bielak Scrubb
Whitley is still the most valuable of those players. He has ace upside. But obviously his stock and trade value are way down from where they once were. Whitley could still be a very significant part of a trade, possibly even the headliner for somebody like Gallo. Dubin, Solomon, and Abreu would be the next tier. All 3 guys have pretty high upside. I think Dubin could be an absolute stud reliever next season. All 3 of those guys could be significant complimentary pieces in a trade. James, Bermudez, Ivey, Paredes, and Bielak are a significant step down but still have some value. They could be flipped for a lotto prospect or included as a throw-in on a bigger trade. I don’t see Martinez or Scrubb as having much trade value or profiling to have much chance at having an impact in Houston. They would be near the top of my list if Houston had to DFA someone.
Honestly looking at those guys they all probably have ability to have a career in the bigs if things break right. I will go with Whitley as the only one with ability to be TOR starter though so if one is going to hit that’s my hope.
Honestly, I'd rather build some experience in these younger position players and continue to upgrade our pitching . . . trade for a lefty specialist . . . find an insurance outfielder and run it back. Let CC walk. He was 7th in the lineup for a reason.
The Astros don't view catcher as a position of need, either because: - the asking price is too much or - they have their answer already (Korey Lee hopefully) I like Maldy, but a 58 OPS+ in 2021 is turrible even for catchers. The bar is set really low on the plate for Lee. As for the arm, if he can even be 50% of what Maldy is, I'd live with it.
Dubin, if he's in the pen, will impress. I'm usually all for giving a guy every chance to be a starter, but I'm not sure he has the endurance to be a starter. I really hope he's in the major league pen early as he could ease the load on Pressly, Neris, and Maton. Whitley is still a wild card with the highest upside. Bermudez may take Raley's spot. Abreu and James need to be rebuilt. Solomon....I'd like to see what happens if he threw the cutter 30% or more of the time.
At this point I would sign Tommy Pham for something like $22M/2yrs and then see if there was any way possible to trade for Shane Bieber or Luis Castillo without giving up Pena, Leon, or Lee. I would wait out the 2nd and 3rd tier SS market and sign someone super cheap to be a 13th position player and provide insurance in case Pena doesn’t prove ready; Simmons, Iglesias, Villar, and Galvis would be on the short list, but if all of them wanted more than ~$5M/1yr I would just bring back Marwin. I would approach Framber and Garcia about team-friendly extensions, assuming Tucker and Alvarez would be too expensive already. I would also talk to Yuli about extending another year at the same rate.
There is some intrigue to Seth Martinez's #'s. I would not DFA him. Certainly, he is older at 27 and I'm not sure why he languished so long in the Oakland A's system without being promoted more quickly. He has been very consistent and never had a bad year with an overall 1.08 whip in 5 seasons . Something happened in 2019 though and his K/9 rate started creeping up and he ended with a whip of 0.95. He followed that up with a 0.94 whip in Sugarland last season and his K/9 rate skyrocketed to over 12.
I'm totally on board for a Bieber or Castillo trade if we can also find a taker for Oddorizzi in another deal Do you think Whitley, Chas + a couple lower-tier prospects gets either? I'd imagine at least one of Leon / Lee / Pena would have to be included, or else one of Urquidy / Garcia / Javier And Simmons has always been my preferred stopgap bridge to Pena if Correa is gone What do you think it would take to sign him? Would he go for 2 yrs @ $15M, with a mutual option for the 2nd? MLBTR predicted 1 yr @ $12M for him, but that seems way too high with the awful OFF seasons he's had back to back He's basically SS equivalent of Maldy at this point, who only makes $5M
