Nice. Finally, we have a first baseman. With his hits location history, he'll hopefully be a regular at the Crawford boxes.
1st base finally addressed, but i do wonder if it means goodbye bregman... if that's the case, maybe they could allocate the rest of that money elsewhere? Even though it's slim pickings.
Sounds like an obvious move at a position of need if you’re making the decision not to meet Bergman’s demands. The question is whether it will be enough hitting to keep Astros in contention when last year’s batting lineup didn’t have enough with Tucker/Bregman being replaced by Paredes/Walker (granted perhaps some minor league promotions could be part of this discussion). My guess is another good outfield bat is still needed, but cap considerations could get in the way of filling that gap through free agency. Here’s to hoping Christian Walker’s “late-bloom” continues for a player with 10 years in the league
Abreu had a ~130 OPS+, put up 7.2 bWar / 6.6 fWar, and received fringe MVP votes across his age 34 and 35 seasons. I think Astros fans will be happy if Walker does the same in his age 34 and 35 seasons. As far as we know, Walker doesn't have any chronic back issues. I don't know how serious they are, but some people seem to think Abreu is actually a couple of years older than his stated age as well. So he's probably not going to fall off the same cliff, but if he does it will be in the last year of the contract, not the first.
Thank god Arenado rejected the trade. It would've been for almost the same salary and years that Walker just signed for.
Love the move. I didn't want Arenado at all. $20 million seems like a steal. Love Bregman but idk how well the Astros can handle a high value long term contract that goes sour. It sucks to see so many stars walk over the years but those 8 or 10 years contract usually age poorly.
This man has played 100+ games of minor league Left Field just in case we get into some extra inning shenanigans.
3 year contract is great. He will most likely lose a little towards the end of that, but I doubt that he will be washed up. Hard to see much downside to this. Having said that. He's only going to move the needle so much. They obviously need to keep building!
Pretty shocked thats all his manager could muster up for a player of this caliber. Shopping the discount rack can lead to some pretty good finds.
Excited to have a GG at 1B! With some pop and more consistency from this position in the lineup that should help our offense. So is he our new clean-up hitter? Need 1-2 OFers now and we should have a solid lineup for next year.
Abreu had just had a slump year prior to signing with Houston, he was spent - and he proved that he had nothing substantial left to give on the field. It was a gamble he’d have a rebound year with Houston, but the man was baseball done and done!
