2022 Playoff and 2023 Roster Discussions

There won’t be $ to sign Verlander and extend Tucker and Valdez. Maybe Verlander and Tucker. No need to sign a FA to replace Montero. We have Maton and Seth Martinez.

 

Jim Crane does not share this opinion.

If JV signs for under 4 yrs and $40M AAV I would be shocked if it was anywhere but Houston.

I think any other team must go over $120M to even be considered.

 

In hindsight sure glad we didn’t do the deal but Urquidy barely pitched in the postseason and we had a massive, gaping hole at DH that Contreras could have filled. If the Astros would have lost and this story came out fans would be up in arms that we didn’t go all in.

 

Exactly what I'm saying. We're already spending a lot on Pressly and Neris, and have Stanek and Abreu returning. That is already a scary 1-2-3-4 punch. Factor in Maton and Martinez, plus maybe hoping one of Taylor, Mushinski, Dubin or Paredes can step in, we are pretty set. If we absolutely must, there will be several rental relief options at the deadline. Use the money elsewhere.
Tucker is priority #1 to extend. We have a lot of good pitching, but if we're extending someone I much prefer Javier to Valdez (younger, more powering stuff, less to worry about regarding shift rules).

 

I think Jose Abreu would slot in perfectly. Then I'd check in with JD Martinez. I know he had a down year but at the right price I think he and Abreu added to the lineup would take us back to our super deep lineup days. Come on Crane we have have been to back to back World Series. Let's spend some of that play off revenue !!!! With both players be on the older side the deals could be maybe 1 or 2 year deals.

 

Does anyone on here think that Javier has earned the right based on results of the regular season and playoffs to be at the very least the #3 starter on this team if JV resigns or the #2 starter if JV decides to leave?

 

Would you rather have Gurriel for 1 year at $8M or Abreu for 2 years, $16M? Not worth the difference, IMO. Abreu has lost his power and is sneaky old. Gurriel is still an elite defender and would probably still hit about 250 or so with good contact from the 6 spot.
I'd like to see them re-sign JV, and use Urquidy or Garcia as the centerpiece in a deal for a controllable All-Star bat.

 

Starting rotation is gonna be sick again after JV re-signs. JV, Framber, Javier, McCullers, and Brown and Garcia. Then you have Pressly, Abreu, Neris and Stanek in the pen? Filthy pitching staff AGAIN. And that’s without Montero. I’d sign JV and Montero and be done with it for the most part. Same formula pitching wise as this season. No need for a drastic change.

Then offensively you absolutely try to re-sign Vazquez. Korey Lee may or may not be ready, and it won’t hurt to have three good options. Plus Vazquez can play 1B and DH. Re-sign Yuli for one last ride probably. Hopefully he carries over his playoff success to regular season.

That’s pretty much most of the current roster. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The question to me is who do you let go out of the free agents. I would definitely take JV, Vazquez and Yuli. Possibly Montero.

It would be sick if Correa came back too, but I kind of doubt the Astros are interested. You could basically have a rotating DH since we would be overloaded with IF.

 

Absolutely he has.

 

I am absolutely baffled as to why so many are ready to let Verlander, the BEST pitcher in baseball, go. He will sign a 2+1 for $110-120 million, and he’s worth every penny. The Astros wouldn’t have won 106 games without him, and they sure as **** wouldn’t have won the WS without him. Cry all you want about some of his poor playoff starts, but he showed up in the highest leverage game of the season and pitched his ass off in WS Game 5.

 

He's been one of the top 3 pitcher in all of Baseball since the beginning of September.

 

Are you on drugs? You'll rather have Yuli over abreu who had a decent .824 OPS and had 75 RBI? Abreu would do major damage at minute Maid. He would be a perfect DH option. I can see alot of veterans wanting to come to Houston to chase a ring. If we can nab JD Martinez on a cheap 1-2 year for depth we should totally jump on it as well. I hope we save the money from JV and spread it across various hitters.

 

Who do y'all think on this Astros staff should get most of the credit for the development of the pitching staff over these last few years? They have taken pitchers that other teams didn't want like Pressley, Stanek, and Montero for example and turned them into either all star or borderline all star caliber players.

 

There's not really any one person.

Scouts who identify talent, data analysts who identify which pitches work better, multiple on field coaches to help with mechanics, even sports psychologists. A lot of hands are involved in getting a guy from there to here.

 

The first part of the statement I agree with, but the second part I do not. Verlander cost you Game 1 and gave you a solid and heroic, but unspectacular start in Game 5. If Verlander wasn't here, that just means Javier would have gotten an extra start at some point and we would have seen Garcia start a game. I still think the Astros win the World Series without him.

And that's the point. I love JV. I would love to see him retire an Astro. But Houston's depth at the moment is clearly in its pitching, while there are obvious holes to fill in their lineup. If giving Verlander $40 million+ prevents you from addressing those holes and improving the offense, you don't do it. If they can bring him back while adding an impact bat or two, I'm obviously on board with that.

 

Which free agents will accept a 2+1 or 1+1 to fill holes at DH, 1B and/or C AND bring the level of talent that Verlander adds to the team?

Let me suggest to you that this is not a question of WHERE Crane should allocate 40M. Similar to the Correa situation, this is about where a reasonable deal can be reached with a key player. If it cannot, the $ won’t be spent. At least, not 40M.

If Crane can sign Verlander, he will do it. Either way, we are likely to address C, DH and 1B with cost effective options. The long term plans are to fill the roles with farm hands or savy trades for short term solutions.

 

Abreu isn’t signing for 2-16M. It’s probably closer to 3-60 or 2-40.

 

Interesting that the narrative has been Crane thought Click wasn’t aggressive enough… but here we have a case of conflict due to Click possibly trying to be too aggressive.