We just need to survive the next couple years. Do well targeting in the international free agency period and hope to draft and develop some guys in the US draft in the middle rounds. It isn't easy but it is doable.
My guess is there will be a trade for a player like Benintendi to shore up one spot, then a 3rd tier free agent signing (like Pillar, Marisnick, Gardner, etc.) for <$5M for the other spot. Which is not the end of the world, the Astros will still be contenders and favored to win their division, it just means this years team is not likely to be as good as the 2017-2019 teams.
It will make it very hard. Most likely the Astros will have Alvarez DH next year..... have Tucker as a corner outfielder, someone like Pillar or Pederson in center and then trade for their other corner outfielder.... that could be Benintendi, or other middling starting outfielders at a reasonable price tag.
Looks like Click is trying to clean up all outstanding business so he knows what his parameters are for signing FA's. Anymore arbitration guys we have left?
I think it is entirely possibly the Astros win 95 games this season, or the young pitching blows up and we are sellers at the deadline.
Saw a report from Rosenthal earlier today that the Mets are close to a deal with Hand. If that's the case then I'd imagine the Astros are likely not going to add any big name relievers. I could see them going and getting a cheap veteran option just because you can never have too many arms though. At this point I think there's clearly just a few more moves to make. Sign/trade for a corner OF (possibly trade for Benintendi?) Sign a CF (Pillar?) Sign a backup C Maaaaaybe sign an innings eater back of the rotation type of guy. At this point though I don't really see any big moves on the horizon. We shall see though! As @Nook pointed out earlier, just survive these next couple years by signing some good international talent and developing some good mid-round talent via the draft and we should come out the other side of this thing relatively fine.
I wouldn't mind seeing the Astros fix their 40 man roster crunch by trading guys for international signing money. If Smyly is worth 11 million I think McCullers at 6.5 isn't the worst thing.
How? McCullers would easily be an elite elite reliever and when healthy has been a solid #3 starter with flashes of #2 stuff. Even factoring in The injury risk he is easily worth a $6.5M/1yr deal.
I agree that he has a lot of upside, I just do not think that it is going to materialize. I don't think he will agree to go to the bullpen and I expect he will get hurt again while having inconsistent performances. I hope that I am wrong.
