Fried would be a good or perhaps better Kikuchi replacement. Plus a Valdez, Fried, Brown, Arrighetti or Blanco rotation in the playoffs(if they make it) would be 1 of the better ones and would give you a shot at World Series before potentially losing Valdez and Tucker. And if you lose Valdez, I would be comfortable with Fried taking the number 1 spot and Brown as the number 2. Glad Brown likes him. Hopefully he can convince Crane to give the ok on signing him. Crane already liking him improves the odds of him saying yes.
That deal would favor Houston quite a bit imho. Bohm will make less than half what Pressly will make and comes with another year of control. Bohm is also generally the more valuable player. Astros would have to send a decent prospect with Pressly for it to be reasonable.
I'm not valuing Pressly as a closer. The money Pressly is getting is the money needed to have a guy that can get outs in the 7th or 8th. Montero will be on the books whether Astros trade Pressly or not. Homes are like the regular season. The Astros mobile home is good enough to live through the regular season. The playoffs are the car you drive. Remodeling the kitchen sink does not help much on the open road.
Exactly - and now teams do not have to only compete with massive payrolls, but the top tier teams deferring a lot of money. I understand that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers and Mets will be able to spend more money, and have some degree of a competitive advantage ... but there are limits and there are long term problems of fans in smaller markets losing interest. Do we want a 5 or 10 team League? I don't....
Bohm is interesting - and his value is hard to peg. He has only had a WAR above 1.00 once in his career, which was last year when he had a robust 3.00 WAR season. He was a bad defender in the past but last year was actually solid. So, the Phillies would be trading when his value is trending upwards. On the other hand, they almost benched him at the end of the season and he has had his struggles in the past. I think it comes down to the market for elite relievers in free agency. We saw Chapman sign for $11,000,000 - and Pressly is the better pitcher at this point and can still close. If the Phillies decide that they want to add a top reliever, but don't want a multi year scenario, I could see where they would consider pulling the trigger - especially if the Astros throw another bubble pen arm in the deal. Don't forget - the Phillies are one of the teams in on Bregman. If they can go from Bohm to Bregman and Pressly, that may be a big enough upgrade even with the payroll increase to have them sent Bohm to Houston. My opinion on the deal is mixed - if the Astros lose Bregman and Pressly and add Bohm, I would likely move Caratini to cover the Bohm contract and then use the Pressly and Bregman signing to target two pretty good players. Then again - I think Jorge Polanco has as good a chance of being good in 2025 as Bohm or Austin Hayes does.
I am pretty high on Polanco too. I am totally cool with him being Houston’s opening day 3B next season, so long as he is the 2nd or 3rd best bat they add this offseason. There is a chance Houston can adequately fill out their roster cheaply with guys like Polanco and Santana and Conforto, but they will have to have some good scouting/coaching/luck.
Depends on if the Red Sox can talk Framber into an extension. If they can then this trade would be viable.
It’s going to get even worse if/when MLB (or the teams) get ALL the streaming/tv rights, and the channels are sold directly as a service solely devoted to a single team. If anyone anywhere in the country can buy the Yankees streaming service or Dodgers streaming service then those biggest markets are gonna pull even further away. Theyre gonna have to do a salary cap sometime in the next 10 years. My idea would be a hard cap with each team having the ability to designate one player and one pitcher as exempt from the cap.
I think 90% of the top free agents will sign before Christmas. Predictions: Soto: Mets (next in line: Jays, Dodgers) Burnes: Braves (Red Sox, Orioles) Bregman: Phillies (Mets, Astros) Snell: Dodgers Adames: Giants (Dodgers, Yankees) Fried: Yankees (Astros, Mets) Alonso: Mets (Diamondbacks, Nationals) Flaherty: Tigers (Cubs, Red Sox) Torres: Mariners (Angels, Red Sox) Kim: Angels (Mariners, Padres) Santander: Phillies (Royals, Reds) Walker: Diamondbacks (Astros, Nationals) Hernandez: Blue Jays (Dodgers, Red Sox) Pivetta: Cubs (Red Sox, Mets) Eovaldi: Red Sox (Orioles, Blue Jays)
A nationalized TV deal would be detrimental to the big market teams that own their network (YES, Sportsnet, SPACE CITY!!)…. Steinbrenner has already taken issue with Manfred’s even mentioning of it. Having MLB nationalize the TV rights, along with the escalating CBT, would serve as a defacto cap. Right now, the big market teams that have a lot of dummy owners of their networks as well, don’t have to share any of that TV revenue.
The exact opposite of what you're saying will happen. Look at the NBA. The digital rights would be shared (an amazing concept in MLB, I know), but that's the plan. MLB already is holding/running the rights for, what, 13 teams, all of the former Bally's? It will be a a massive labor fight, but MLB can and should win it. I'll allow it.
For now if I’m making a prediction, I don’t think Houston will actually sign a major free agent. I think they’ll fill their holes with lesser players (Carlos Santana, Josh Bell, Jorge Polanco, Gio Urshela, Michael Conforto, Mark Canha, Andrew Heaney, Justin Verlander). It won’t shock me if Houston does end up signing a big free agent, I just don’t think it’s likely. I also do think they’ll make at least one trade for a meaningful non-star player.
Who would be upset with this opening day roster: 2B Altuve DH Alvarez RF Tucker C Diaz LF Conforto 1B Santana 3B Polanco CF McCormick SS Pena Bench: Dubon, Meyers, Salazar, Trammell Rotation: Valdez, Brown, Blanco, Heaney, Garcia, Arrighetti Bullpen: Whitley, Dubin, Ort, Scott, Neris, Abreu, Hader DFA: Sousa, Hummel, Singleton Traded: Caratini, Pressly IL: Javier, McCullers Optioned: Contreras, France, Gordon, Gusto, Hernandez, King, Dezenzo, Whitcomb, Corona, Leon, Kessinger, TBD, TBD
