What other contenders have greatly improved?? Yankees just spent 360 million to stay the same, that's a lot of money to be out biatch Mets swapped Verlander in for deGrom Dodgers have lost Turner, maybe the other Turner and added nothing of significance Phillies added Turner but have Harper in iffy status Brown won't be 2022 Verlander, and we don't need him to be. He will be plenty good to keep our rotation at the top of the AL. Our pen is back, our offense is already better with Abreu....
Yes. 1000 times yes. 700 OPS catcher that would be locked up for 3 years at less than 10M in AAV? I would make serious blood sacrifices to make that happen. Yes yes yes yes yes.
$87M/5yrs is too rich for my blood on Contreras. Glad Houston passed on that deal. As long as they acquire at least one more good bat while maintaining their pitching depth then this will be a successful offseason.
You don’t think Seattle has gotten better? While we swept them in the playoffs, we were only +4 in run differential and could have easily lost game 1 and 2. They’re going to be a much better team next year.
There's no guarantee he gets back to .700 OPS let alone maintains it and the first season would be at 33 which is already getting a bit old for a catcher. I think we'd be looking to replace him almost immediately if not immediately. Also, the way money is being thrown around, are we sure he'd be under 10 mill?
Not a lot of great FA options left to spend that money on that would significantly upgrade the team. Lee is 3rd catcher this year behind Maldonado/Vazquez (and will get enough time as injury replacement throughout the season). He becomes full time #2 next year behind Vazquez replacing Maldanado. And if he begins to outperform him in the subsequent 2 years of Vazquez contract then the roles can flip. It’s not glamorous but it is solid and stable.
I have a feeling the Yankees will go hard after Rodon and sign one of the SS that are out there. The signing of Judge doesn't make them a top contender in the AL.
I don’t think the Astros are going to pivot. I would love Vasquez as our starting catcher but not getting the warm and fuzzies on that move happening.
What we bat they acquire will be less than Contreras at a less valuable defensive position but in general yes- if the Astros keep everyone important other when JV and add Abreu and a 120 OPS plus guy along with that then the off-season is a success, and a solid B+. the A+ Off-season (and doable with CBT) was Abreu, Contreras AND Conforto. Abreu plus another good bat and money to spend to improve at the deadline is a good offseason. mid the night bats are Brantley and Yuli coming back that’s a C- Tree he Astros are good enough that they could win another World Series with a C- offseason and some breaks.
They will be far into a luxury tax bracket that doesn’t even exist yet. It would be rolling back the clock 20 years in strategy. It could happen. But it would be a big change.
Yea I actually mentioned them earlier as the only playoff team from last year that has likely gotten better. Not a slam dunk they have though. I like Teoscar, and Wong is a nice 2b also. They did give up a couple of strong pen arms though
But hey, he can call a good game…. Contreras filled the hole perfectly and didn’t cost our farm.. I think we missed out on this one…
Is that really improving? Id rather run with Taillon then the risk of Rodon's injury history. I bet they'll sign a bat and i'll bet he strikes out 10+ times in the ALCS.
I think there's an over reliance on stats. They are important but there's a lot behind the scenes we don't see.
Phillies added T. Walker as their 4th starter. Added Matt Strahm to their bullpen. They addressed for the most part some of their biggest needs. But their team is setup for a good year again next year.
At this point, I would make my pitch to Vasquez and promise him 100 starts behind the dish this year, and full time starting next year. Tell Maldy we're saving your knees while using your brain.
Lol, run differential in a single playoff series is in no way a useful gauge of talent levels. By expected win-loss, the Astros were nearly 20 games better than the Mariners (Astros 108 expected wins, Mariners 89 wins). They have a pretty substantial way to go to narrowing the gap.
