Current 2023 Astros MLB position rankings: C 28 (Lee backing up Maldy) 1B 13 (has Yordan with 126 pa at 1B behind Matijevic) 2B 1 SS 22 (LOL) 3B 2 RF 2 CF 23 (Meyers/Dubon/McCormick) LF 11 (McCormick/Alvarez) DH 1 SP 6 RP 10 Fangraphs is high on Yainer Diaz as a hitter. They are underrating Pena and McCormick. They like Hunter Brown.
Will be interesting to see if we stick with Click or reunion with Stearns. Either way it seems like Crane is making the decisions, for better or worse. He seems close with JV so maybe he brings him back irrespective of who the GM is. Something like 2y/80mil or something with a third year. I would be ecstatic with running it back…resigning Brantley and Yuli to one year deals, letting our depth compete internally for PAs. Loved Vazquez but he will get paid a lot this off-season. I think Montero as well. Will be fun to see what happens…I don’t think we need to go bazurk on the market or bring in a lot of players… Side-note, it’s crazy how well this team is set up for the future. I mean bravo. Go Stros!!
I think Crane will do his best to resign Verlander -- hopefully Justin realizes he can further cement his legacy in Houston. I'm not that high on Yuli -- his season was a bust -- he only showed up for the post season which is nice and all, but he's getting old. We can do better to upgrade at 1B. I vote yes on bringing back Brantley on a 1-2 year deal. Montero will probably get more money on the open market and one thing this team is good at, is finding quality bullpen arms. I wouldn't overpay for Montero when we have other studs in the stable. I.e that Diaz deal by the Mets is ridiculous. Closers are notoriously fickle and rarely give you a bunch of good years -- we are lucky with Pressly. I could see us adding a big bat like Abreu or maybe trading for Happ too in CF. Finally - no to Aledmys (maybe Hensley can be our utility player?), Castro retires, Mancini signs elswhere
Correa's arm would be wasted at 1st. Play him at 2nd and let Altuve play 1st. Wait, no. Can't do that I guess. Let Altuve DH.
Gotta be a few that want some post season love that would take a little less to be in this culture with Dusty and crew.
Yeah but I'd want Brantley to DH, unless Correa is willing to move to center field.... I don't know I just think Correa should come back... We don't need him, his position has been filled but if he want's to come back home I'm totally down. We need his bat and to add more of the 2017 players out of spite from the hatred Houston gets would be bad ass...
I want Uncle Mike back as DH, but where do you hit him in this lineup? I think Pena has taken ownership of the 2 spot, and you can't move any of the other five. Depending on whether Yuli stays, I guess you could hit him 6th. I just wonder whether MB would be ok hitting 7th or so, after hitting in the 2 hole so well for so long. But those are definitely the two spots which must be shored up, CF and DH. I don't really know what kind of top tier CF guys might be available, but we could let Urquidy or Garcia go for the right guy. Heck, steal Judge and put him in right, move Kyle to center. Resign Brantley and hoo boy!
If I were worth 9 billion dollars and owned my favorite team I would spend like a mofo as well. Even if he lost 100 million a year on the Mets it wouldn't hurt him in any meaningful way, hell the appreciation on team value likely covers most of the loss.
Trade Pena for ohtani fire baker Sign judge Jk I don’t care at this moment. I’ll come back to this thread in January.
Maldy shouldn't hold the Astros back from getting a catcher they'd like for the next few years. Bring back Vazquez on a multi year deal and let it be known he'll be getting at least 60% of the starts in 2023 and that percentage will likely grow the next year. I'm not ready for Lee to be the regular backup next year but perhaps by 2024 when Maldy is retired.
Fangraphs projects some Astros prospects to be pretty good hitters, namely Diaz, Dirden, Hensley, and Matijevic; they all project to be better hitters next season than Pena was this season. With that in mind assuming the prices are low, I’d be fine bringing back Brantley and Gurriel, with those 4 prospects as insurance if they show their age. I hope for better additions, especially at 1B since I haven’t much hope for Gurriel rebounding, but if Crane is insistent on bringing back Verlander, there may not be much money for better options, and there is certainly logic in not blocking those young guys last next season.
I suspect the change in the MLB run scoring environment has jacked up projections for minor league hitters and depressed those for pitchers.
2023 we have plenty of flexibility, we can afford Verlander, Montero, Abreu...and maybe even Benentendi if he's in the $12-15M range. It's 2024 once the remaining pitchers start hitting arbitration that things get a little tricky. I think for the next 3 years, we'll focus on retaining the core staff and supplementing with shorter term deals for guys like Abreu and bringing back Brantley if he takes a paycut. 2023 we should be favorites and should be able to add a piece or two. 2024 to maintain flexibility we need rookies like Lee and Diaz to show something in 2023 so they can potentially start taking over in 2024. As far as extensions go, I think we wait one more year to see how players like Framber and Tucker look given we still have them for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Bregman and Altuve contracts come off the books and hopefully we can keep them but on slightly reduced contracts to pay for everyone else. Verlander comes off the books in 2026 maybe which gives us ultimate flexibility on keeping our core. That coincides with some mature recent draftees to start coming up as well that can replace Brantley like Melton. Hoping Diaz or Jacob Melton can lock the 1B job up by 2025 and Drew Gilbert may be our 2024 CF sparing us from tapping the market. The next 3 years and potentially 5-6 years still look incredibly bright if we make the right moves
Tucker and Framber get their extensions. Yuli comes back for cheap, same as Brantley to DH. Urquidy gets traded either at winter meetings or deadline. SP-Valdez, Javier, LMJ, Brown, Garcia, Urquidy* RP- same minus Montero. Abreu becomes closer by end of the year. Lineup 1)Altuve-2b 2)Peña-as 3)Yordan-LF/DH 4)Bregman-3b 5) Tucker-Rf 6) Brantley-DH/LF/1b 7)Yuli-1b/DH 8) Pedro Leon/McCormick-cf 9)Maldy/Lee-c Bench) Dubon, Hensley, meyers, Lee *verlander stays if he gives hometown discount. Brantley works some at 1st for spot starts and in case of injury. Urquidy gets moved for relief,prospects, or OF under control at some point. Pedro Leon is brought up and is next years rookie that makes the league dumbfounded again.
The first order of business for the Astros is to figure out who is running the team. I think that the front office will remain mostly intact even if they make a change at the top. But it might impact how aggressive they are. This year's success has largely come from trusting their homegrown talent. What players do the Astros think are ready to contribute? It seems like Hensley is a neat fit as an Aledmys Diaz replacement. Hunter Brown is part of the starting pitching logjam. Whether he contributes as a starter, reliever, or trade piece remains to be seen, but he probably deserves a chance to start. Yanier Diaz and Korey Lee each got time on the major league roster last year. Lee is more well regarded defensively and was on the Astros world series roster after Yuli's injury. Diaz got the call over Lee in September, but didn't get much playing time. How the Astros view these two young backstops could impact their offseason plans. If the Astros don't view either as a future option behind the plate, they may make a move for a longer term option like Contreras or Murphy, and let Maldonado spend more time on the bench. Alternatively, the Astros could feel pretty good about what Maldonado brings as a starting catcher, and let Lee and Diaz compete for the backup option. Diaz also brings some intrigue as a 1B/DH/LF option, but did nothing to telegraph that interest in September. If Diaz can legitimately be an above average hitter, he could DH most nights with Alvarez in LF, making 1B the only obvious position to upgrade, but that's a lot of pressure on his bat. Jake Meyers hit well in AAA after struggling coming back from an injury. I haven't given up on him as a potential solid major leaguer, but it's also hard to justify playing him over Chas at this point. I'm not sure every team in the league values him highly, but I think at least one team out there might like him. Pedro Leon is another CF option, who spent the entire year at AAA. He brings a ton of athleticism, but the hit tool is still worrisome. Justin Dirden finished in AAA this season, struggling in a small sample size after mashing his way through AA. His LH bat might fit better in a timeshare with Chas, but i'm not sure where he's at defensively. He's not really an opening day candidate, but is potential depth if an OF is hurt or struggling. While Meyers is the only one of this group with a shot to make the OD roster, any of them could get significant time with the Astros, either as a 4th OF or a challenger to Chas' hold on the CF job. Joe Perez and JJ Matijevic are both on the 40 man roster. I don't really have much faith in either of them. Matijevic did well in AAA, but hasn't hit in the majors. I doubt he stands in the way of the Astros acquiring a bat or 2. If the Astros don't add a 1B, he might be the best internal option, but that would be really disappointing. Perez hit okay after recovering from yet another injury. I think he deserves a chance to see what he can do if he is healthy for a full season, but that season is probably best spent as a space cowboy. Pitching is even harder to parse out. Brown was great and will probably get a shot. Dubin wasn't great, can he contribute as a reliever? There's a host of prospects that haven't quite broken through, but have shown interesting talents in James, Paredes, Bielak, Mushinski, Taylor, and Blanco. Do any of them have a role to play on the 2023 Astros? Peter Solomon and Jonathan Bermudez have already been victims of the Astros pitching depth, who is next? Jayden Murray, Jaime Melendez, and Miseal Tamarez might lead the next wave of pitching depth that could reach AAA this season. Beyond unexpected leaps from injured players like Tyler Ivey or Jairo Solis, the Astros have the yearly question of what to expect from Forrest Whitley. Overall, I think the Astros have to do something at 1B. There are 3 marquee 1B out there this offseason. It seems like the obvious answer is to sign at least one of Jose Abreu, Anthony Rizzo, or Josh Bell. The strong Cuban presence in the Astros clubhouse makes Jose Abreu feel the most natural candidate. I think it would behoove the Astros to add another above average bat. If the pitching hadn't led the team to a world series, the abysmal DH play outside of Alvarez would have been an embarrassment for the Astros. Alvarez does present a bit of a problem, as i'm not sure you really want to commit to him as either a full time DH or LF. Really both Brantley and Mancini were great fits on the team in that regard, they just didn't work out for different reasons. I think both Cody Bellinger and Joey Gallo are interesting options if they want to gamble on a veteran player bouncing back, but don't necessarily want to commit to a specific full time role. If all the Astros did this offseason was sign a 1B and an injury-proof Brantley, I think they should be favorites in the AL West at least. Far more likely, this offseason is going to revolve around Justin Verlander. Signing Verlander would seem to almost necessitate at least one significant trade. Can't wait to see what happens.
