Abreu is fine. He would be a huge improvement over Sanchez. One of the reasons I like Donovan is that he can play so many positions. 2026 will be his age 29 season and in the past 4 seasons he has started at least 12 games at all 4 infield positions and both corner OF spots He can rotate 2B and LF with Altuve. He can give Cam or Dezenzo a break vs RHP when Altuve, Correa, Pena, Yordan, Walker, and Paredes are all still starting. He has never had a K% above 15.0% which is exactly what this team needs.
A great off-season would be adding Rasmussen/Ragans/Lowe. Walker would have to be traded a long with trading Arrighetti plus prospects.
Extremely late on this but it’s hilarious that absolutely no one considers Mike Fiers a hero (probably because well… he’s a tattletale) even though he was a whistleblower about the “cheating”
Especially criminals. We had a whistleblower that happened to be a piece of sh*t, but man wouldn’t it be great to have a whistleblower or two that would force the NBA to cleanup their act.
The Astros need their scouts to find under the radar young contact hitters in the minor leagues you can trade for or find minor leaguers that are released. Marwin Gonzalez (Red Sox), Mauricio Dubon (Giants) Andres Gimenez (Guardian) Jays signed Ernie Clement after being released by the A's as a Minor Leaguer.
Selling low on Walker will be a mistake. He had turned it around second half. If we can get a #2/3 out of it, great. But just to unload him - he will be missed.
I'm sure people were saying the same thing about Jose Abreu before 2024. "Look at his production in the 2023 second half and the playoffs, he turned it around."
Totally agree. I’ve been concerned about our right side defense for years. I wasn’t worried with Walker over there. His presence helps us play Altuve at second. If he’s not there - we don’t have a right side defense. Maybe we can get Donovan. Maybe this Ope kid we got from Dubon trade can play second and improve his bat. I just hope if we trade Walker, we get a piece and not a salary dump.
Difference is that Abreu had an 86 wRC+ and negative 0.5 fWAR Walker had 99 wRC+ and positive 1.1 He certainly wasn't a plus, but he wasn't the drain that Abreu was. Walker in 2025: Bat speed 80th percentile Hard hit: 65th Barrels: 81st Exit velicity: 70th Fielding: 78th Abreu 2023: Bat speed: 79th Hard hit: 53rd Barrels: 52nd Exit velicity: 42nd Fielding: 8th There is way more hope for Walker and reasons for it.
Sanchez MUST be traded. I would also like to see De Los Santos traded and Ort unless he can be passed through waivers and outrighted. I'm sure there are several guys who will also be traded, but I'm fine keeping any of them. I think I may pursue capitalizing on his value and the depth of LHRP by trading King if teams value him enough to help get a deal done. It's interesting to me that they kept Whitcomb last week instead of Trammell. I wonder if he has some sneaky value and some teams are asking about him?
Whitcomb is still pretty valuable while he has options remaining, as was Trammell. Trammell being out of options is what cost him his spot.
The bWAR difference is smaller (0.2 vs -0.1). I'm not disagreeing that Walker was a more valuable player in 2025 than Abreu in 2023. Mostly because he still plays defense. Neither were good, but 2023 Abreu was worse (except he was amazing in the playoffs). What I doubt is the bounce back in a player's mid 30s. You can hope for it, but it's unlikely. If I had to place a wager, it wouldn't be on year-to-year improvement for guys that age.
