https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-contenders-biggest-weaknesses Astros C (projected: 29th) It’s possible that Houston doesn’t actually see this as a weakness, because it did just win a World Series with Martín Maldonado, who has earned a rightful reputation as a highly regarded handler of pitchers. But he did hit only .186/.248/.352, a year after he hit only .172/.272/.300. That’s a 63 OPS+ over 805 plate appearances, which is almost unthinkably poor offense. That speaks to the quality of his catching, but he does turn 37 next summer, and the Astros did feel the need last summer to acquire Christian Vázquez, who started two World Series games, including the Game 4 no-hitter. Vázquez is now a free agent. Potential fixes: Trade for Danny Jansen; re-sign Vázquez; sign Omar Narváez
After Crane's splash with Abreu, I am I alone in thinking we were lead to believe other moves were not far behind? Kinda feels like Crane had some things lined up that didnt pan out. Is anything else going to? Would a real GM have made things come out differently?
The Whitley/Lee proposal for Thomas is way too low. Thomas may have upside, but at the moment there's question marks around him, and the Diamondbacks will want a lot for him. McCarthy is also a little worrisome given his underlying numbers. For Arizona, the only one I'd trade for is Varsho (because of his OF/C flexibility). Any of their OF will come at a very pretty penny.
Contreras was the target (signed with Cardinals) Crane mentioned OF & pitching All the OFers are still there (except Nimmo, Bellinger & Kiermaier) Yeah, Abreu would be a Red Sock/Guardian/whatever and Gurriel would be your 1B. Weren’t going 5 years on Contreras, no matter the GM. Who/what else have they “missed” on? (I guess that a GM would have “solved”?)
This has to be a good sign. I really hope we can resign him and get a versatile OF bat and an innings eater veteran pitcher although I don’t really know if it is truly necessary.
I’m not crushing the Astros when I say Crane doesn’t have Cohen’s money. However, if MLB doesn’t have a salary cap, than any owner with mega money can destroy the league with disciplined player development and a financial pool of riches. For example, No team could touch Bezos(117 billion) if he wanted to buy a team and spend his personal wealth.
Brantley is a question mark until he;s ready to test out his shoulder. If the injury heals and he comes back at even 80% of earlier last year, I want him here. Vasquez would be the icing on the cake and I would love this off season. As usual, the price should reflect their value. 2B R Altuve (2) SS R Pena (5) LF L Alvarez (6) 3B R Bregman (2) RF L Tucker (3) 1B R Abreu (3) DH L Brantley (?) CF R McCormick/Meyers (5) C R Maldonado/Vasquez (1/?)
Cohen has more money than any owner. 2% of his net worth is 340 million to spend on a team. Combine that with revenue Mets team makes and no team can compete.