36 year old coming off a bad season. Market wasn't likely to be too strong. With a team option this could be a steal. A lot of his metrics are actually pretty similar to his career numbers aside from a very low BABIP. He could very easily have some good seasons left in him, he's a born hitter.
In the early part of his month long slump he was ripping the ball, just not getting anything to fall.
,but the last part until the last 2 games...35 batted balls with only one over 100 mph. Hopefully, those last two games are representative of him being healthy.
Great deal, even if this is more of an insurance deal (which I presume is NOT the case). Great defense at fist, and has a strong portfolio as a professional hitter. The team option is icing on the cake. Very happy with this signing, and this adds to the possibility of bringing back all 3 of Springer, Brantley, and Yuli.
Hard to judge until we see how the free agent market unfolds but at first glance it’s a great deal for Houston. Get a guy who just last season was one of the best hitters in the league (34th in wRC+) for a 9 figure one year commitment with an option for a 2nd year. Really takes the pressure off the lineup having 6 guys who profile to be at least above average hitters locked in (Gurriel, Altuve, Correa, Bregman, Tucker, Alvarez). Now they can QO Brantley and Springer and if neither accepts the worst case scenario is a 7-8-9 of Maldonado-McCormick-Straw, with Toro/Diaz/Jones as insurance in LF if Straw or McCormick don’t cut it. But at that price Houston should still have at least $30M to add to payroll to fill their holes, possibly more if they had significant insurance on Verlander’s contract.
The 1B free agent class is awful this year. Guys like Matt Adams, CJ Cron (just had knee surgery), Marwin, and probably Carlos Santana because his team option is too much. I think for the money with only a one year commitment it was a no brainer to bring back Yuli. Now get a LF, CF, backup catcher, and a bullpen arm. It really depends on what Crane's budget is for next season. They have around 70 million coming off the payroll. If they intend to get under the luxury tax than it will be close to what you say. Not much in arbitration with Correa, Diaz, and McCullers. That shouldn't be more than 5-7 million in added payroll.
I'm okay with this. He's probably about done, but we don't have a lot of other 1B options at the moment. Hopefully he is better next year than he was this one, because he wasn't very good!
