I've been all over the trade Correa now IF he won't sign an extension. However, the Lindor and Carrasco trade shows you aren't getting a "boatload" of prospects. I would rather get back MLB talent with multiple years of control even if it meant adding players to the deal with Correa.
Problem is, trading Correa takes this team from a likely division winner and viable WS contender to a fringe playoff team. If you get a young cheap star player in return, that's a reasonable sacrifice. But based on what Cleveland got for LIndor (and Carrasco), I think Houston would be lucky to get a mid-range Top 100 guy plus another grade 45 guy. Something like the equivalent of Whitley and Nova. That's not worth the cost to this years' team, even if they could spend some money to replace most of Correa's production (by overpaying for a free agent like Lemahieu).
He gave the Astros the middle finger during a game last year so maybe he didn't want to sign with Houston.
$90M/6yr for LeMahieu. Paying him thru his age 37 season. Would not have wanted Houston to do that deal.
The Yankees preferred the longer deal, as it lowered his AAV, thus lowering the luxury tax impact of signing him. So I think all parties know this is closer to a 4 or 5 year deal, and probably consider the last season or two more like a deferral.
i agree, but I don’t think I would have liked him at $80M/4yrs either. Especially since Houston would have had to also give up a draft pick (although it would have only been a 3rd rd pick).
Oh, I ultimately agree with you. He's a great player, but he's not young, and I think it would be more wise to allocate our funds elsewhere. I always felt that the hope of trading Correa, sliding Bregman to SS, and then signing DJ to play 3rd was unrealistic. At that point, why not keep Correa and just re-sign Springer? I am hoping this signing slightly increases our odds of re-signing Springer.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...orts-lawsuits-Astros-Rockets-CSN-15870598.php Found this interesting. Lots of lawsuits that could have an impact on the Astros payroll flexibility moving forward. If Crane wins his suit agains McLane there could be hundreds of millions of dollars available to be added to future payrolls. Conversely, if the other suits (Luhnow, fans, players) go against the Astros it could pile up and reduce cash flow. Not knowing the details I obviously hope things go Cranes way so he can pump more money into the team.
Ken Rosenthal had an article with the Athletic talking about why the Astros won't be in on Realmuto. The draft penalty is worse than just a 3rd for signing a free agent with a qualifying offer. "The Astros face a double whammy because of the penalties they received for stealing signs illegally in 2017 and ’18, and for exceeding the luxury-tax threshold last season. The first offense cost them their first- and second-round picks in both ’20 and ’21. The second, according to a strict reading of the collective-bargaining agreement, should have cost them their fourth- and seventh-rounders, plus $1 million from their international signing bonus pool in ’22. But Major League Baseball did not allow them to get off that easily. Rather than permit the Astros’ sign-stealing penalty to effectively reduce their luxury-tax penalty, the league determined that if the team signed a free agent attached to a qualifying offer, it would lose its third pick in ’21 (a fifth-rounder) along with its second pick in ’22, plus the $1 million from its international bonus pool."
Yep...DJLM, Cole, and Stanton in a few years have a chance to partially Pujols the Yankees as they will be getting paid for what they did in the past by then.
Brutal. Even more reason to believe there’s no way the Astros go over the tax this season. I’d say there’s probably less than $25M in 2021 money for the Astros to spend. I doubt we will see Houston take on any salaries in excess of $10M for 2021.
Yeah, it feels like we really were over thinking adding Baez. He is pitching higher in the zone as his fastball velocity has decreased. He has mixed in other pitches as well, but I don't like him as a top 3 guy in the pen. He isn't good coming into games with men on base either. The fact he has been left off playoff rosters with the Dodgers tells me a lot as well.
