that’d basically be conceding that neither Diaz nor Lee will ever be a full time catcher for the Astros. That’s about the worse possible thing you can do for either’s development, offensively for Lee and defensively for Diaz. If that’s what they decide whatever but it seems like a shame to waste the potential of two high minors catcher prospects.
As Dusty said last night, one of the would be traded if they obtain Contreras. Giving Lee or Diaz 20-40 games of work in their rookie season would be good for their development, not bad.
That's all fair For me his cost does not matter unless it prevents improvement / status quo somewhere else. Just his cost does not mean anything if everything else happens anyway. I do not see any options that are better for improving catcher or solving catcher after 2023. The roster has very few holes but it would take 2 players to replace him and based on his history, they would likely provide inferior production. He makes the lineup 7 deep with All Star level players and 1/2 the time will replace a worst case possible bat. That allows a league average bat like McCormick to be #9.
Longoria is injury prone and has only played 3rd base. I just don't see why we would be the team to bid the most when we don't have an opening there. I'm sure he could play 1B/LF without embarrassing himself, but why would he want to, and why would we want to pay an aging/injury prone/OK hitter that will have to experiment at new positions.
The last two paragraphs are key- he’s versatile enough to fill two holes at once for us and there’s no external path to a cheaper/better solution to our catcher situation beyond 2023. Also- his existence does not stop the astros from developing Lee or Diaz, as his bat is good enough that they’d probably always be happy with him catching 60 or 70 games, as long as he is ready to catch and catch well in the playoffs when you need that extra bat.
I agree with you generally for sure. If they are bringing him in to play 15 games at 3B, 15 games at 1B and 45 games in LF while DHing occasionally I guess there are worse ideas. But he have to be pretty cheap (like 5M or less) for me to be interested.
Didn't see that blurb about trading one of them if Contreras signed before, thanks. Re: Lee or Diaz getting 20-40 games their rookie season. I'd beg to differ that 20-40 games is all that good for their development if the end goal is one of them being the full-time catcher the following season. Every player benefits from regular reps but catchers in particular need a lot of reps to refine their defensive skills and get into an offensive groove on top of their defensive skills. If they want either of them to be catching 100-120 games a year at some point, they need to be doing that now.
If we sign Contreras for 4 years, the plan would NOT be to get Lee or Diaz to catch 100-120 games. It may be more like a 70/90 split in 2024.
I really hope we go after Rodon aggressively. Losing JV, McCullers’ fastball and health concerns, Framber’s performance from the shift change, counting on Javier to pitch 160+ IP and deep into games consistently. Not to mention, we got extremely lucky with injuries last season. I would feel a lot more comfortable with a Rodon-Valdez-Javier trio heading into the postseason, rather than Lance being that third starter.
