3 years , $60 million is nothing for a starter who eats up innings with a high whiff rate and proved himself as an Astro. You get not being able to resign Cole when he is offered $300 million.. but this , is UNACCEPTABLE!! The pitching staff has been propped up by no name overperformers this year but everyone reverts to the mean eventually. Retaining Framber is likely going to be too expensive. That leaves 1 real starter going forward and a whole bunch of injured question marks. Incredibly short sighted from the front office - they know they have trouble retaining high price talent, but somehow... are also content to let affordable options slip through their fingers.
I was surprised they didn’t fight harder to keep him, but if there’s any staff I trust with pitching it’s ours. Solid argument could be made that money is better off spent finding depth in the lineup or going towards Frambler
The money went to Walker. Sucks it hasn't worked out so far but we definitely needed another bat more than we needed a starting pitcher. One could argue that is still the case.
I wanted them to sign Pivetta this off-season. In their defense, we have lost both Blanco and Wesneski in the last few months. We have no choice but to trade for a pitcher now.
Like with Verlander going to the Mets, the cost of signing a player is also prospect retention to keep from thinning out the farm, trading.. for a player you already could have kept. So now its gonna thin away more players dealing them.. to get a Kikuchi type pitcher. I didnt like letting him go either. Oh well now.
They were dumping money with Tucker and Pressly just to sign Walker and pay Paredes. Crane wasn't going over the CBT.
I don't think anybody reasonably could have accounted for 3/5 of your rotation going down in the opening month, it's really easy to say in hindsight. Nobody knows for sure who is gonna be good next season, particularly with our pitching development. I can guarantee nobody here had Framber down as a rotation anchor after the 2019 season.
He was a free agent. What makes you think he wanted to stay here? Japanese players often choose west coast teams (and NY) because of the communities and the history of other Japanese players with those teams. It's the second time in his career that he could choose his home and the last time he picked a west coast team also (Seattle). Neither Toronto or Houston were places he chose. Beyond that, the Astros had a full slate of pitchers already and more pressing needs on offense. There's not a lot that can be done when you lose multiple pitchers and others have recovery setbacks. Even with all that, the Astros starting pitching has not remotely been their problem.
Do we know if they tried? What evidence do we have that Dana didn't offer a reasonable deal and Mikuchi simply chose to leave. Teams don't choose if FAs stay, the players have the freedom to choose. It's ridiculous to say " The Astros didn't keep him and should have "
It's a crazy concept - free agents go to teams that offer them the biggest contract. Time and time again. Astros may have even gotten a discount considering they are a perennial playoff team and the Angels are where winners go to die. It absolutely was affordable to resign him if they factored in the inability to resign Framber. But they always let their marquee players wind down and either get nothing or bargain bin prices for them. More importantly , it's about intent. You traded young prospects for him. HE absolutely delivered beyond expectations. Then you don't pitch him in the playoffs and let him walk for nothing. Common issue when you have people without foresight. Things haven't completely burnt down yet, so we're fine! Ryan Gusto, Colton Gordon, Brandon Walter aren't people you want in the playoffs. They aren't people who can sustain a high level throughout the season ---we're already seeing a rapid drop off. McCullers is coming back from 2 years off from an injury many never recover from. We're seeing what that results in. They knew resigning Framber was slim to none BEFORE the season started. All you had to do was scratch a little bit beneath the surface to see that Brown was the only legit starter going forward and you'd have to hope for a big jump from Arrighetti in 2026. You don't have to overcomplicate it. Consistent, healthy starters who eat innings are a premium and when you can get one for a 3 year affordable contract, you gobble up the chance.
I do know they didn't offer a contract. They were trying to resign Bregman for $165 million- far more than Walker's $60 million. It was widely reported and seen that the Astros had Brown, Valdez and a whole bunch of "question marks" heading into the season, and that Valdez wouldn't be resigned unless he had a disaster of a season. Yusei Kikuchi leaves Astros for $63 million deal in AL West The Astros aren’t willing to sizably alter their expenditures. Keeping Bregman home is the goal. Losing out on Kikuchi and other free agents is the trade-off, leaving Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and a whole host of question marks for the 2025 rotation.
Unless you consider Crane a part of the Front Office, I wouldn't call it short sighted by the FO I have no doubt Dana would have wanted him back, but when it comes to spending big $$$ it's not on Dana Kind of like those who blame Bagwell for the Abreu signing lol. Bagwell went to talk to Abreu because Crane asked him to. The one that agreed to that signing was Jim Crane
This is all true, but as good as our guys are at getting the most out of pitchers, it's also becoming more and more obvious that the downside to getting that extra out of them is the stress on their arms causing injury. Us, Tampa and the dodgers get more out of pitching talent than any organizations, and we also have more significant pitching injuries than the others
The only other time i've ever heard that word was in a strip club, and that's all I got to say about that
