The catcher position is very very little about the bat. Its simply a bonus. Because of his hitting potential, Diaz gets a small bit of extra slack but his defense and handling of pitchers not his bat should determine his fate. If the Astros bring in a veteran catcher, I would think they include Yainer in the deal to get him. And I am in favor of that. I don't expect it to happen though. Lefty hitting OF, RH bullpen arm, and playoff caliber SP are probably higher priorities.
Maybe. I am probabiy not a good person to ask because I am pretty closed off to the idea of destroying the future to invest in a pretty mediocre team. So for me to actually embrace a trade on which Houston trades away both Kevin Alvarez and Xavier Neyens it would have to be such a slam dunk no-brainer trade that no reasonable person could even remotely begin to disagree. Like, for an example, Alvarez and Neyens for Skubal and Greene, ok do it.
I get it. And I'm excited for both Alvarez and Neyens. I think in 3 years they could compare to 2015 Springer/Correa. But there is uncertainty with ANY prospect, especially when they aren't even to AA yet. In 2013 Jurickson Profar was a SS and the overall top prospect in baseball. His best pre-FA season was 1.5 WAR In 2021 Spencer Torkelson was the #3 overall prospect in baseball. He is now in his 1st year of arbitration and has 1.9 career WAR including negative WAR this year. Obviously I cherry picked those to make my point but Alvsrez and Neyens are far from certain to be stars. Its tough to turn down a proven All Star level player with 2 1/2 yrs of control to keep them. Just devil's advocate. I'm not saying I would do it.
I really wonder what it would take to get Buxton. 4 war player getting paid 15 million a year with 2 more years of control. He's not young so he could fall of at any moment, but he's been amazingly consistent throughout his career. Cam and one of our top prospects?
Buxton would look good in an Astro uni. But I would not trade Cam for him IMO Buxton's 2 1/2 yr ceiling and Cam's 4 1/2 yr floor look a lot alike.
