It boggled my mind that LMJ never got cheap outs. Batters would foul off 10 balls but none of them ever seemed to stay in the field of play for a weak groundout or flyball.
I wish I could find the post by @Nook where he said the Astros coaches couldn't wait to get this guy and coach him up. We all laughed at it, but apparently they know more about baseball than we do.
Who in their right mind is paying a 5.24 IP pitcher with a losing record and a 4 67 career era 17 million a year guaranteed for 3 years? 1 year $8 million. That's all I'm offering if I'm the Astros.
Well he also thought there was absolutely nothing to worry about with Montero during the middle of the 2023 season and that the contract we signed him to was more than reasonable.
You've probably right. But he's going to want a three year deal that he's going to get paid 13/17 mull for 3 years in the market. You're probably not getting him for what you want. But it's a great experience. Thanks for thinking of me
He has elite stuff+, K/9, and very good injury risk for a SP. Have you looked at the recent FA contracts for SP? Leaving out the guys who are "better than Kikuchi" Eduardo Rodriguez 4/$80M Lucas Giolitto 2/$38.5M Marcus Stroman 2/$37M Michael Wacha 2/$32M Jordan Montgomery 1/$25M Those guys are all significantly worse than Kikuchi. Montgomery is a very close comp= a solid MOR starter who got traded at the deadline and performed well to earn a $25M 1 yr deal. The others all have had recent poor performance and/or injury issues I'm betting Kikuchi has the best 2025 of all those guys. And he will get paid like it.
I still think it was an overpay, but I'm willing to grill up some crow if he keeps pitching like this for the rest of the (post)season.
I understand. My point is simply that an offer like that might as well not even be made. It's up there with offering Tucker the Altuve 6/$150M extension. It wouldn't even generate a response.
If we don't offer Kikuchi something at market value... everyone will roast the front office again for "not doing their job" like last off season despite having 11 SPs that are major league capable on the 40 man roster.