I predict: Signing Brantley to a 2 year deal (club option 2nd year) Signing JV to a 3 year $100 million deal Signing Vazquez to a 3 year deal ($8 million per) Signing Yuli to a 1 year super cheap deal. Signing Diaz to a 2 year deal. He's still very valuable to this team. Maldonado will only catch for JV. Montero will not be signed. Likely a 1 year wonder, we wish him all the best.
I can't begin to tell you what a ridiculously horrible deal this is. Nobody pays for relief pitchers. They are a dime a dozen. Unless he's gonna hit a crucial 2 run double in the bottom of the 8th to set himself up for his own save, no thank you.
Closers do get paid…. But not on 5 year deals. The Astros secured Pressly, and prior to that secured Wagner.
The whole Michael Brantley thing, I felt bittersweet for him because he didn't get to help out in the end. But much to the contrary, he may have been the most important person contributing to our second World Series victory.
I'm referring to the $20 million per. That's embarrassing. For a pitcher who only saved less than 1/3 of your victories. He had his career year in 2018 with 57 saves. He returned in 2019 to post a Brad Lidge-esque 5.59 era. Had another meh season in 2021 (3.45 era). This signing is ridiculous and reckless. They'll be way over 300 million before you know it and probably no better off than what they showed this year, blowing the division and no post season series victories.
https://theathletic.com/3764267/2022/11/08/mlb-contract-projections-position-players/ Aaron Judge: 8 years, $320M Trea Turner: 8 years, $296M Carlos Correa: 8 years, $260M Xander Bogaerts: 7 years, $175M Dansby Swanson: 7 years, $168M Brandon Nimmo: 6 years, $132M Willson Contreras: 4 years, $74M Jose Abreu & Anthony Rizzo: 2 years, $36M Andrew Benintendi: 3 years, $42M Jurickson Profar: 3 years, $36M 10 more projections Josh Bell: three years, $40 million Gary Sánchez: two years, $18 million Adam Frazier: two years, $18 million Brandon Drury: two years, $17 million Michael Brantley: one year, $16 million Mitch Haniger: one year, $15 million Michael Conforto: one year, $14.5 million Joey Gallo: one year, $13 million J.D. Martinez: one year, $10 million Kevin Kiermaier: one year, $9 million
Diaz has the 5th lowest ERA over the past 3 seasons among relievers despite the "meh" season. For a team with the Mets payroll, this is a very reasonable signing. He's not the reason they haven't had a better success. If the Astros had a payroll as high as the Mets are expected to have, I'd have no issues with Diaz's contract for the Astros. Neris, Abreu, Pressly, Brown, Stanek, and Diaz would dominate allowing Astros basically to not need to pitch more than 1-2 relievers on back to back games.
I hope I don't fall off this limb I'm out on, but I suspect Altuve's offense will be better in 2023 than the 2022 postseason, but not as good as the 2022 regular season.
I'm more of a rabid Astros fan than an MLB fan, so all these potential moves for other players are things I don't have much of an opinion on. I'll trust the Astros to make the right moves there (assuming they first make the right move at GM). Instead, I'm going to use this post to describe the things I'm excited to see in 2023 that we maybe didn't get last year, despite the amazing season: A full season of Pena in the 2 spot of the lineup plus his slightly modified swing that seemed to work so well in the latter portion of the season and playoffs. Bryan Abreu continue to get more and more high leverage relief responsibility, positioning him to become the Astros future closer once Pressley is gone. A full season of Hunter Brown in the starting rotation. He looked pretty good in his two starts and handful of relief appearances. I'm hoping he continues to show the promise he did in AAA where he dominated almost all of 2022. Some definitive answer on if Jake Meyers is who we thought he was in 2021, or who he seemed to be in 2022. If he can't hack it at the plate, fine, I think Pedro Leon will have something to say about it. I just hope we don't continue to get wild swings back and forth and can never be sure what we really have in Meyers. Personally, I think he's going to turn into a hell of a player either here or elsewhere. More laser beams from Yordan's arm in LF. I know he ain't no great shakes as a rangy outfielder, but he has a cannon for an arm and I love seeing him throw people out at home. A full season of Christian Javier in the rotation. I think he did enough this past season to show he is a starter, and he should be a starter. I know he got 25 starts last year but there were still periods where it seemed like the team felt he might be better out of the bullpen. Hopefully that argument is over and we get 30+ starts out of him. He will put up some mind boggling strikeout numbers if he does. More Hensely and Yanier Diaz. I have high hopes that one of those two guys will be the long term answer at 1B. The team may go the free agent route for the next season or two, but I'd like to get enough ABs from these two players to have a sense what to expect in the future. Some idea of whether or not we should ever expect anything out of Josh James. These last couple of years I keep forgetting he is even on the team. Which is weird considering the way he splashed into the league dotting 100 mph fastballs in the playoffs that one year. Man, this past season was fun. I expect more of that to follow. Go Astros!
The biggest challenge in the division is the Mariners if they continue to improve. Will they challenge the Astros more for the division? Can the Angels improve after a disappointing end to their season after a hot start. They have two of the best players in baseball at the top of their order. If they fill in the rest of their pieces they could field a more competitive team. Will the Astros suffer any kind of World Series hangover? All these questions and more will be answered on the next episode of Scooby Doo.
Bring back Dr. Smooth and Yuli on team friendly deals. Make a trade for a CF, preferably one in PITT, and call it a night.
I'm willing to lose Uncle Mike and Montero if it means keeping Vazquez. I'm thinking Maldy will catch JV and one more day a week. Vazquez caught the 2nd no hitter in WS history and got a big hit in game 6. He's clutch when the lights are the brightest. I want somebody who's been there and done that, but isn't old. I sign Vazquez to a 3-4 yr deal which will coincide with this group of starting pitchers run. Bring back Yuli and let him split time with Yanier in the regular season. If you need a CF trade for one at the deadline. I'm higher on Chaz than most and hope Meyers can get healthy. I''m also like Dirden more than Leon. Leon is a premium trade piece.
I don't know where the narrative that Maldy might retire came from? There is 0 chance Maldy does not return and I have not found any source that even mentions him considering it. Castro stated that not Maldy. Furthermore Vazquez is not returning. He has stated he wants to sign with a team that gives him more playing time. Maldy won't just be catching JV and he knows it.
I’ll be ecstatic if we could just resign JV and Yuli, plus a big bat like Abreu/JD Martinez to add to the middle of the lineup. Resigning Yuli give us the flexibility to work in younger players (Hensley or Diaz) at 1B. That’s all I want for X-mas this year. Be nice to add consistent hitting (Vasquez) at the catching position but I also want Lee to get his chance too. But let’s not forget Maldy is a Silver Slugger finalist this year. LOL
