I was thinking it'll be additions at the trade deadline. If it seems like we have a great chance at winning a championship, I can see Crane biting the bullet as needed.
The whole point of a deep line-up is so you win with 1/3rd hot, 1/3rd meh and 1/3rd struggling. Occasionally more will be hot or cold at the same time, but you just can't count on it over the long haul.
If Pena continues his struggles at the plate, I think I'd prefer Kessinger's fielding. But I admit a bias for the Metzger and Everett types if you can't find a hitter like Thon.
Jeremy Pena and Hunter Brown for Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez, who says no? Trade gives Astros 8 legit plus hitters and 3 legit ToR SP without breaking payroll or further decimating the farm. White Sox get 2 high ceiling high floor players with 5+ years of control.
Eloy is a hard pass for me. He is a terrible defender, negative baserunning value, has a reputation as a less than good attitude, and was barely better than average hitting last year. The Astros defense was a noticeable step down in 2023 from prior seasons. Replacing Pena with anyone and insering a combination of Eloy or Yordan in LF further hurts it. And based on 2023 there would not be much if any hitting improvement. I like Cease and expect him to be better than Hunter for 2024 but after that I have hope that Brown develops into a solid #2 starter with more value than Cease. And you are substantially increasing payroll limiting the ability to make additional moves.
I wouldn't do the proposed deal, but Eloy has hit RHPs every year (i.e., what the Astros need from a platoon or fulltime player). The negatives you list should make him fit the Astros price range without needing to deal Pena or Brown.
I don't want Maldonado back, because I do not want the manager and front office to deal with having multiple pitchers insist on pitching to him As far as me being needlessly sarcastic, I don't agree - it would be foolish late in the season to take away the catcher that pitchers like Verlander, Valdez and Javier want - same with Pressly. By that point, the horse was out of the barn. The struggles of Valdez aren't because of Maldonado. Valdez lead the AL in innings pitched in 2022, and then lead baseball in post season innings pitched as well. He then followed it up in 2023 where he was third in innings pitched and if you count post season innings as well - then Valdez lead the league in innings in 2023 as well. The difference between his 2022 and 2023 was homers allowed, he allowed twice as many home runs this season. As for Javier, the issue was poor conditioning and overuse as well - and had nothing to do with Maldonado. The issue with Maldonado is one that should have been addressed last off season, and it wasn't. Verlander, Valdez, Javier and Pressly all want to win - and they believed that Maldonado gave them the best bet to win.... that isn't a pitchers issue, that is a front office issue.
The deal probably heavily favors the White Sox on paper. Jimenez doesn’t have a ton of surplus value because of his inconsistent hitting and poor defense. But Cease has a ton of value as a ToR SP with multiple years of control. Thinking about it again, I would probably ask the White Sox to eat some money and/or toss in a decent prospect to even things up. But in his 5 seasons, Jimenez has been an elite hitter in 2 of them and an above average hitter in the other 3, so I definitely think he would be a significant upgrade, especially considering that the Astros would have Meyer and/or Dubon available on the bench to sub in when the situation called for it. I don’t think Dubon/Kessinger would be a meaningful defensive downgrade from Pena if at all. Both guys are really good defenders. Pena has an excellent glove but his arm is not that great and his range is just above average. Dubon actually has a better arm.
Thanks the insights Nook, do you know how deep this goes with our top 3. Are the open the the idea of Diaz catching them next year, or are they steadfast on a Maldando like veteran?
As a (former) fantasy owner of Eloy Jiménez, you left off perhaps the most damning information: he's hurt ALL THE TIME. Frankly, I'm shocked he totaled 120 games this year - because he was out *a lot,* it seemed - but it was the first time he's hit 100 games in a full season since his first year.
I got yelled at a lot for defending Dusty here - not all pitchers have personal catchers but those that do... Pitching is mental, as much as it is physical, and doing anything to alter routine potentially throws a wrench into the process. If pitchers tell you they want Catcher A, why would you disrupt that? It's almost certainly not worth it. It's kind of like telling a golfer to pick any ol' caddy. No; they want someone they know and trust. That's important. I also tend to listen to the Hall of Fame/All-Star pitchers who tell us the catcher makes a difference. I'm not sure why fans from their living rooms think they know better? Diaz will get the spring to get on the same page as these guys, and that'll make a difference. Also, to whatever degree JV, etc., were indifferent to the offensive contributions - if Diaz continues to hit, that'll obviously make the transition easier.
I agree with most of what you said. I will say that if Maldy's on field value was managing pitchers, pitchers not performing well should partly be on him (granted, I don’t put much value on Maldy's pitcher management). Also, a manager's primary responsibility is getting the players to play well. Inability to get pitchers to be okay with Diaz would fall under manager responsibility. The front office's mistake of having him on the roster should not completely absolve Dusty from playing Maldy as much as he did and not getting pitchers acclimated in the regular season to Diaz such that he was forced to play Maldy in the postseason.
He was extremely quick to play the "I need to get pitchers familiar with Maldy" card. When asked about the prospect of Diaz being given that treatment in case Maldonado went down he basically scoffed at the suggestion. I agree the FO is mostly responsible, Dusty made no attempt whatsoever to make Diaz a featured catcher. He made up his mind he didn't like Diaz opening weekend and never came off it save for Yordan getting hurt and him being forced to play him. Once he proven he could really hit it became a bit of an issue keeping him on the bench, but in the end Dusty got what he always wanted, Diaz was on the bench when games mattered. He made sure Diaz wasn't playing in October, he laid that groundwork all season. Diaz can't play first, Diaz can't hit lefties, Yordan has to DH, pitchers want to throw to Maldy, he's hasn't worked with these guys...he made sure he had all his bases covered when it came to excuses. He gave Diaz 2 weeks without a start just to really make sure he was rusty AF for the postseason. We sure could have used some extra offense, but nope, god forbid a manager try to get all his best hitters out there and in their best form.
