You can probably carry Brantley *or* Yuli on the roster, I don't see how it's possible to have both. And Brantley may not sign until Spring Training (or later), so you can't exactly plan on that.
Honestly if everything I said goes, we’ve got 48 mil tied up in JV and Walker, then we still have about 17 mil. Could go conforto if they don’t trust brantley, although he’s got similar worries. I like taking a flier on him, could be great add. Contreras has been mentioned too.. but getting 1B taken care of under 10 mil would open up so many possibilities. We just can’t do it unless we spend on JV.
It was 12 games (for Yuli) over 3.5 weeks. It’s baseball anything can happen. It’s highly likely it is nothing but small sample size nonsense. His true talent level is below replacement player and he’s going to cost 5-8M, and if he’s on the team it’s highly likely that he will get way too many AB’s. also, roster spots are incredibly precious as you only have 3, spending one on a shitty hitting 1B/DH that provides no real versatility is silly.
He's not wrong, though. I never got my pecs signed by Carmen Electra, but that doesn't mean I don't know when it's time for her to retire.
I like what Yuli has done for the Astros. He’s been a subpar (on balance) playoff performer in the totality of his career (measured as a 1B) for the Astros (711 career post season OPS) that provided some really big moments that were integral to us winning some really important games. He’s also been absurdly bad in a couple playoff series that we lost that were he better (again- judged as a middle of the lineup 1B) maybe we’d have won. All in all very happy to have him on the team. Wish him all the luck in the world, if we bring him back it’s bullshit sentimentality and not hard nosed practicality.
Brown, McCullers, Valdez, Urquidy, Javier, Garcia Maton, Martinez, Abreu, Pressly, Montero, Neris, Stanek C Contreras, Maldanado 1B Abreu 2B Altuve 3B Bregman SS Peña LF Alvarez CF Chas RF Tucker DH Brantley, Contreras BN Yuli BN Dubon BN Hensley
Payroll is already trending up. Adding Abreu, Contreras, Brantley and Yuli would likely push payroll above Crane’s ability to add JV, especially if JV was contracted for 3 years.
Crane will spend what Crane will spend, and apparently Crane will spend more than he did last season. He's the man now, in charge of JV negotiations. I just hope he spends it wisely on good/better players and not sentimental ones.
And just as with Mancini, Abreu would be on the bench or out of position in 2023 instead of in the line-up at 1B. Getting Players which improve the club is only half the battle. And would ANYONE show me an objective metric which indicates Gurriel is even an average player defensively at 1B now to offset the dWAR of -1.1 which indicates he isn't?
Spending has its limits. I have no problem if Crane wants to go nuts and go into the 300s for a couple years, but it’s very unlikely.
2022 Manicini xwOBA .327 2022 Jose Abreu xwOBA .373 2022 Yuli xwOBA .271 Abreu was an elite player in 2022. He would not have been on the Astros bench. Mancini should have started a lot more games for the Astros, but both struggled mightily down the stretch and Dusty went with his guy. If Abreu and Yuli are on this roster in 2023, Abreu owns 1B.
I used to think that too. Then Yuli, Maldonado and Dubon cured me of such sanity as Mancini and Vasquez had to fight for playing time.
