It hard to say what kind of market Meyers would have had anyway. He really only has value to contending teams with short-medium term needs in CF. Outside of the Mets and maybe the Royals and Guardians, I’m not sure any teams would want him enough for Houston to justify trading him even if melton was healthy and productive.
That market of 3 is better than the market of zero the last time he was offered around the league. I'd have been happy to do it. Or, make him part of a bigger sell to one of those teams with maybe one or more of rookie starters/bullpen pieces gone if we wouldn't have run every third arm in the org through the wood chipper for the 3rd year running.
Brandon McPherson allowed a hit and struck out seven over five scoreless innings in the FCL. Do what you will with that information
This is interesting. Houston hasn’t signed any international prospects since this trade. That’s actually a really good return for a veteran RP on a minor league deal. $500k is significant.
Big day for Anthony Millán so far down in the DSL... he has a two-run triple and a grand slam (his first pro homer) for the Orange team. Millán, a 17-year-old Venezuelan OF, signed on the first day of the current IFA period.
Snooping around and letting myself read too much into everything, I saw this tweet: So maybe that’s the kid Houston acquired $500k in bonus pool to sign. Romero knows his Cuban prospects, and usually the top Cuban prospect each year is a really good one, so this would be a coup for Houston if it happened. I can’t imagine there are too many teams with more than $800k left in their pool. 3B Omar Guerra is another good Cuban prospect who just defected.
Are these kids eligible to sign during the 2024-25 signing period? Also, is there anyone known to have been available during this signing period who remains unsigned and is worth over $700k?
Yes they are eligible. Basically 17+ year old Cubans who defect this year and odd late blooming prospects are the only ones who will get significant money before Jan 15, 2026. Probabiy not. If he projected as one of the 10-20 top prospects of the next cycle then he could get more by waiting, but I don’t think he’s rated quite that high. There are several teams with $1.5M+ left so if he’s that good he can get more than what Houston can offer without waiting.
I believe the rule 5 clock moves back a year after the DSL season ends, so there's some incentive for teams to wait to sign players rather than doing so mid season. There's usually a handful of players who sign in December right before the period closes. The Astros signed Cubans Robier Hernandez (who is on the IL) and Alex Gonzalez (who walked 4 hitters in 1.2 hitless innings this morning, but reportedly has a 93-95 mph FB) as well as a few other pitchers in the days before the period closed. Juan Fraide had another nice outing going 5.0 IP 2 H 0R 0BB 4K 1 HBP. That's his 2nd straight outing of 5 scoreless innings. He's up to 15 IP with 2 walks to 13 strikeouts and a 1.80 ERA. He can reach 96 and spin a breaking ball at 3000 rpm. Panamanian RHP Adrian Ardines followed Gonzalez this morning by striking out 6 over 4.1 scoreless innings. He had a rough go of his first DSL season, but has 18Ks to 2 walks in 13.1 innings this season with a 1.35 ERA. Astros future had an article about him when he signed. Panama seems to be a new area of focus for the Astros in the last couple years. While they didn't sign any Panamanians in this period, they signed 6 over the previous two seasons. 2023 saw Luis Aguilar, Ariel Lebron, and Anthony Aparicio. Aguilar is leading the FCL team in innings with a 2.19 ERA and nice peripherals. Antony Aparicio had a nice 2023 in the DSL and start to 2024 in the FCL before going on the IL. Ariel Lebron I mentioned before has been one of the DSL Astros best hitters but is old for the level after missing last season. He got on base in all 5 at bats this morning. I couldn't find anything about Anthony Gantes, who signed in November 2023 and threw threw 39.1 innings with a 2.52 ERA last season in the DSL. He returned to the DSL this season and hasn't given up a run or walk in 5 innings he pitched so far. In addition to Ardines, they also signed Cristian Navarro in January of last year, but he hasn't pitched in a game for some reason. Weirdly the Padres also have a Panamanian Cristian Navarro who is almost the same age. So 5/6 players look like they should at least make it stateside, with Navarro being a question mark but was arguably the most hyped of all of them. He's also the youngest, turning 18 in August, so there's still plenty of time for him to emerge.
Between Millan, Manzueta, and Alvarez, the 3 top hitters the Astros signed this year have OPS around .850 right now. One of my hopes for Dana Brown was that he would improve their ability to find international hitters, and the early returns on this class have been good.
It would be hard to do worse. And I say that with all due respect to the scouts and development guys. That’s the worst we’ve fared imo.
RP Ray Gaither has 9 straight scoreless appearances in AAA. I think he’s a gimmick guy with an extreme overhand delivery but he can run it up to 96 and seems to really limit hard contact. May be a mild Rule 5 risk or a guy that gets called up as an injury fill in at one point.
It’s a lot harder to make it as a gimmick guy with the must face 3 guy rule now. Some guys were made for the wrong time.
