I just have a really hard time seeing Houston cuttting Castro loose and shifting Maldy to a backup role. Houston is very aware of clubhouse impacts and catcher-pitcher relationships. Adding Contreras is by far the easiest path to significantly upgrade the offense. But I highly doubt they make that move unless there’s an injury.
At the right cost I think they would jump at Contreras but the Cubs have wanted multiple top 100 prospects for him, and I don't see the Astros doing that for a rental. The thing about Maldonado is that he isn't just in a slump this season, his bat nose dived last season as well..... before then he was a guy with an OPS in the 625-660 range and that was playable.... then last year if I remember right it was in the 500-550 range and now he is in the 400's. Having said that, I think we MAYBE see a platoon with Maldonado and another catcher if the Astros think he is worn down, other wise I think they keep trotting him out there. I will admit that the offense with Contreras would be really potent..... Altuve Brantley Alvarez Contreras Tucker Bregman Gurriel Myers Pena
Any chance they would move Brantley is a separate deal, adding something somewhere while upgrading the bat to JDM?
I think they would be avg. With their bats the lineup would be the best in MLB and that's with the Catchers batting .200 combined.
It's entirely possible the Astros look to upgrade at catcher. I could see a pitcher or two being really adamant about Maldonado being their catcher, though. Especially with the loss of Brent Strom. Even in the playoffs it still might be worth having Maldonado behind the plate for a few games.
Actually, Maldy's dive is a bit steeper than that even. OPS 2020-.727 2021-.573 2022-.438 https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/stats/_/id/30289/martin-maldonado Castro was talking about retirement after the season. Moving up that timetable might be in the cards if he isn't feeling too great about his season, for which he has several reasons including career lows in every offensive category I could find. If you solve the Castro problem, I agree that a platoon with somebody seems the most plausible.
Considering how the last two guys I suggested (Nate Lowe, Eovaldi) promptly sucked, the Astros should try to trade for Trout and Taylor Ward.
At this point in their careers, it's a pretty clear cut upgrade IMO. I'm not sure how bad (I am guessing pretty bad) Bell is in the OF/RF but during days when Framber and McCullers pitch, especially in MMP, you could probably get away with him out there. He also has an OPS of nearly 100 points higher hitting left handed whereas Gurriel is 23 points better hitting against lefties for their careers. Factor in how much Dusty likes giving guys days off, I think you could still get Gurriel a decent amount of ABs and we need a 1B moving forward anyway with no farm options.
He's way better hitting LH but I agree 100%...Bell would be my #1 choice given he will likely be cheap too.
Would Bell actually be cheap to acquire? I think 1 team they would be competing with would be the Jays. Jays have given up good prospects the last couple of years so they won't be afraid to do it again. And they need LF hitters so they might be desperate. Can't see Click getting into a bidding war. Would you guys rather give up more for Bell or move on and give up less for a player like Jesus Aguilar if available?
You're so far in left field on this one. Let me get this straight, you want to trade a guy who has a 2.83 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP over 57 innings in the playoffs legit - in other words he has been an ace for us in the playoffs - in the prime of his career at age 27 for a couple lotto tickets? This is right after he signed a team friendly deal that he 100% would not have taken if it wasn't Houston offering it because after all he has HTown tatted all over himself and regularly talks about his love for Houston/Astros including recently tweeting "bury me in the H"? And to be clear, it is a team friendly deal...Eduardo Rodriguez just signed a 5 year $80M contract this past November. His playoff stats? Well you should know they're bad because we are the ones who have rocked him to a tune of a 6.35 career post season ERA. So not only does it not make sense from a pure baseball perspective, but the optics of trading him after you just let another team favorite in Correa walk the year after letting Springer walk? You couldn't make a dumber decision. If I'm Kyle Tucker, I'd immediately stop negotiating that long term deal they've been talking about. What an AWFUL idea.
Where would Vlad Jr. play if they traded for Bell? They just got Chapman so 3B isn't an option. There's no way you could get away with playing Bell full time in the OF. And yes he would be cheap to acquire. Go look at rental bats the last couple of years, especially at 1B/DH. Kyle Schwarber traded for one prospect in A ball that is not even ranked on Fangraphs. Rizzo was traded for roughly the same. Nelson Cruz was traded for peanuts. List goes on and on.
Didnt work. Ward has a bomb tonight and Trout is 3/3 so far and just went yard. Speak it into existence. Maybe start a thread
Astros are not trading for a top flight catcher, especially a rental. They have Korey Lee and Yainer Diaz in the minors. Just not how this team operates...
Bell could be the DH for the Blue Jays. Vlad Jr is the starting 1st baseman already. Today they had Teoscar as the DH and Tapia in RF. Easy fix to move Teoscar to RF and Bell the DH.
One article I read was Bell would be the DH and when Vlad gets the day off, he would play 1st. *sorry, just saw the post above Good to know rentals are cheap to acquire.
