I’m hopeful Pena can get in ~100 pa in AAA since their season is extended. That plus time in the AFL (and potentially winter ball) might be a big enough sample to make him a viable option for the 2022 opening day roster.
I'm curious as to what they'll do for next season. Barring the CBA changing, I would be surprised if he was on the OD roster for service time issues. I think his performance could factor into what moves they make this offseason. If they think he's ready then they'll have a good lineup with two high end bench players in Diaz and Meyers/McCormick. If they don't think he's ready, then someone like Simmons would make sense as a stopgap. Click looks pretty good for trusting a Straw/McCormick CF over someone like JBJ. It would be interesting to see if he is willing to trust SS to Peña and Diaz for next season, or who he brings in to compete with them.
I do expect the service time manipulation issue to be resolved in the next CBA. Everybody recognizes it’s bad for the sport for teams to have incentives to delay bringing up their most exciting young players. But either way I don’t think that 8 weeks or whatever it is will impact what they do; tossing in a De Goti or an NRI type until the service time cutoff passes isn’t that significant.
So there are 6 signees from this year's draft that I don't see on any roster: OF Jaxon Hallmark P Spencer Arrighetti P Colton Gordon P Rhett Kouba P Ian Foggo P Nic Swanson
I haven't seen anything from the MLBPA. Last time the MLBPA caved for a better spread in the visiting clubhouse. When push comes to shove, MLBPA has almost always favored its members over the people that will become their members.
With Kris Bryant hitting FA this year, it might help put some focus on it, however I just have little expectation that the MLBPA will manage to do much of anything.
Really? The Astros must have put some real money on him.... the Pirates were REALLY in on him and were the heavy favorite to sign him.
The tweet says $450k but not sure if that is actually what they expect Houston to give him. I’m a little puzzled by the high number of top intl prospects Houston is linked to. If they sign everybody they have been linked to this will be their best international signing class since at least 2016 and possibly ever. I just don’t see how they’ll be able to do it and fit under the bonus ceiling.
Of course but ostensibly there’s no way to manipulate the international signing bonus pool. Teams cannot go over the pool amount. And from the top 4-5 guys I’ve seen linked to the Astros, their bonus demands should easily exceed Houston’s pool. It’ll be great if it happens I’m just curious how it can.
Do the furnished Apartments apply to DSL players as well? Have they been linked to any top 16 year olds? The ones I remember were Cubans and that OF who was already eligible to sign, so they might be catching non-traditional prospects who were left out a bit with the J2 changes.
The housing deal might sway some 3rd tier guys who are choosing between a $150k offer from another team or a $100k offer from Houston but I doubt it makes any meaningful difference to 7 figure signees. I think I have seen 4 guys with 7 figure bonus expectations (Baez and Hernandez were 2, cannot recall the other 2 at present although maybe a 3rd was Prieto???) linked to Houston, plus now Espinosa at $450k. That’s their entire pool committed with just those 5 guys.
Identifying talent hasn’t really been their issue in Pittsburgh. I’d say it’s more of player development and philosophy of pitching that has caused some of their big time prospects to “underperform”.
