What it does is prevent any salary relief. As Framber, Tucker, B.Abreu, Chas, etc go through arbitration their salaries grow. The team needs high salary FA to leave to offset that, or accept higher payroll. Assuming Verlander and Pressly pitch enough in 2024 to trigger their options then Bregman's $20M, Altuve's $23.3M, and Graveman's $8M are the only reductions. If they can manage to extend both without CBT increase (quite a feet- example: Altuve 5 yr /$80M and Bregman 6 yr / $162M) then they are only losing Graveman's $8M. And that will be a huge arbitration class that includes Meyers and Pena. Payroll would jump into a completely new stratosphere for the Astros. Because of that Crane and Brown may want to not go over in 2024 so 2025 is a 1st time penalty.
I would love for Bregman to be a life long Astro But regardless of what some posters here think, he is going to get paid a lot of money for a long time Unless Crane changes his No long contract policy, Alex is gone The only one I’ve heard mention signing him is Brown, and while Brown has to stay within Cranes policies, it doesn’t mean he agrees with them
I hope they take the risk and sign this guy. If he's a SP3 that can give you 180 innings great. If not he should fit in with Presley, Abreu and Graveman. He should fit in well in the Neris 7th inning role. As far as the OF goes I hope they give Loperfido a shot, but there's guys like Barber that has the ability to hit MLB pitching. Heck there's a chance that Baez could be ready by the end of the year.
He could be added in a 3 for 1 or 4 for 1 trade. For instance I would trade Montero, .Melendez and throw in Dirden for a rookie league guy just to get Montero s money off of the books.
Probably nothing. Montero’s contract is only about $10M underwater total. That’s not enough to warrant seeking out a salary dump. Who knows how the reliever market will develop this offseason, there are already signs of overpays. Montero still has a high ceiling and has proven he can fit into Houston’s clubhouse/culture, so the downside of trading away prospects just to dump his salary only to turn right around and plow that money into another free agent pitcher seems to outweigh any upside. Now if a team really liked Montero and there was a similarly paid OF or good C that it made sense to swap, I’d be open to that.
Sure. But that’s not their extensions doing it that’s arbitration for other guys. If you don’t eat to pay tucker and Framber their big arbitration bumps you can get younger and cheaper by trading them. My tact on tucker is offering him 10/275 or 12/300 or something like that and trading him if he doesn’t say yes. 2 years of arb is the sweet spot to trade him and my guess would be you could get something like a top 10 type prospect a top 50 type prospect and a couple interesting guys that would be top 15 in this organization. Maybe it’s a top 25 prospect and a top 50 prospect and 2 other interesting guys. I’d do that before I let him pull a Springer/correa. Hell- maybe a trade to Chicago for Robert. Good old fashioned challenge trade. Or maybe Tucker and Peña for Cease and Robert. That would be pretty interesting. Tucker for Soto and a prospect. Tucker and Montero for Soto? Evens up the salaries. The more I think about it the more I don’t want to see them go bullpen for sure until the deadline and only if you need it then. I think you have enough internally in spaghetti, Bielak, Whitley and Blanco to hold on, and then when Garcia and LMJ come back you have 2 really good arms move from starter to bullpen. My 13 pitchers: JV/Framber/Javier/Brown/France/Urquidy (6 man rotation- keep the innings down. BP- Presley/Abreu/Graveman/Bielak/Montero/Whitley/spaghetti. On the shuttle- Blanco/Martinez/Sousa Garcia and LMJ to the bullpen when they get back- weakest 2 of Bielak/Montero/Whitley and Soaghetti dfa or sent to sugar land. That’s a playoff 4 of JV/Framber/Javier and Brown and leverage guys in the bullpen of Presley/Abreu/Lance/Garcia and Graveman. That’s literally- give us 12 outs, 15 at the absolute most from the starters and this **** is shut down. I don’t spend on a reliever with this internal plausibility on the table. Backup catcher and OF platoon guy that hits RHP well. That’s it. That’s all we really need to be 9 deep in the lineup and really deep at pitching. I’d be fine with one of the LHH OFers getting 1st crack at the platoon job if you wanted to go cheap- depending upon who is likely to be in a walk year and moved at the deadline. Who says no (probably Astros) to Bryant for Abreu and Montero? That would provide some salary relief today while bringing on longer total commitment. how much would Framber be worth on the market? How about France? lots of interesting moves that could be gauged.
He went from an extra base hit every 12.7 ABs with a 20% K rate to an extra base hit every 7.3 ABs with a 29% K rate as a 25 year old. It's not fair to say we know that he K's too much. Him cutting his K rate to 24-25% without sacrificing any power is a very real possibility as a 26 year old. That would be better than Chas' 2023. And FTR he is Yordan's age (5-6 weeks younger) and actually struck out less than him in 2021.
So incredibly spoiled. In a vacuum, they won 90 games, the AL West and were in the ALCS. On it's own, that's a successful season by most standards. But when it's your 7th consecutive ALCS and playoffs for the 8th time in 9 years, along with being defending champs after our 2nd ring...it felt like a down year.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2024-top-50-mlb-free-agents/ Good values and/or guys I like for Houston from that list: SP Jordan Montgomery ~$120M/5yrs SP Eduardo Rodriguez ~$80M/4yrs OF Jung-Hoo Lee ~$55M/4yrs OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ~$40M/3yrs SP Lucas Giolito ~$50M/3yrs C Mitch Garver ~$25M/2yrs SP Kyle Gibson ~$12M/1yr RP Jordan Hicks ~$30M/3yrs C Gary Sanchez ~$8M/1yr OF Michael Brantley ~$9M/1yr RP Reynaldo Lopez ~$16M/2yrs OF Tommy Pham ~$9M/1yr SP Luis Severino ~$10M/1yr SP James Paxton ~$9M/1yr SP Sean Manaea ~$23M/2yrs RP Robert Stephenson ~$15M/2yrs SP Alex Wood ~$8M/1yr OF Joc Pederson ~$14M/1yr If Garver signs for <$30M it better be with Houston; that’s a steal. The more I read about Jung-Hoo Lee, the more I like him. If he goes for <$40M I think that’s an excellent value. Updated wish list after reviewing these prices would be Garver, Lee, and RP Matt Moore (who if he’s not on this list should be very cheap, something like $14M/2yrs or less). Crane approving $25M over the tax would go a long way to fielding a truly stacked roster.
It's looking like Maldy may be back as the backup catcher. If you have Ausmus as manager, is he more likely to give Maldy more playing time because he sees himself in Maldy as an "Intangibles" catcher with little offense?
Based on what? If Maldy is back he will start, his cult will demand it. Maldonado is gone or he is a starter.
