You point about injury concerns is valid, but I would like to see the list of players the last 5 years that have an era of 2.30, win 80% of their games and still have 600 innings while missing so much time
I expect the Astros to add 3 things at the deadline. 1. Improve the lineup by adding a bat. (Bell, Cooper, Happ, Drury, etc) 2. Add a reliever. Probably a left handed reliever or at least a righty that gets lefties out. (Chafin, Moore, Soto, Mantiply, Robertson, Jorge Lopez, etc) 3. Add a catcher. Sounds like Castro is done. I don't know if it will be an MLB catcher like Barnhart that would put Lee back to AAA, or a AAAA catcher like Garneau. The fear of an injury to Maldonado and having a rookie start in the post season makes me think they will do something. What I would like to see is the Astros essentially flip Odorizzi for Josh Bell. Trade Odorizzi for prospects and then send the prospects to the Nationals for Bell. I would even send money with Odorizzi to eat some of if not all of his buyout for next season to get more prospects. Click specifically talked about eating money in a deal because they have some flexibility.
And the first year was pro rated because of the shortened season, so we didn't take the entire hit. I'm also certain he was insured as all athletes are these days. It was probably a factor in the Astros telling him he didn't need to push his recovery for the 2021 playoffs. The real risk is not a major injury, but simply not performing up to his contract like Strasburg,
It's really like 4.3 years because of 2020. I don't know why I have so much trouble typing T when I mean Y. Tears is a word so auto correct doesn't catch it when I mean Years.
How about this deal for JV? 2 for 70m with a 10m bonus (payable on retirement with the team) and a player option for a 3rd year at 35m with a top 15 qualifier and a 4th year, same qualifier.
Excellent analysis and I agree with all of it. Backup catcher for cash. Good RP for a 2nd tier prospect. Solid bat for 2 2nd tier prospects. Flip Odorizzi for prospects. Get out of the deadline having improved the team without giving up any of the Org top 7 prospects or any of the good young major leaguers. Only thing I might do otherwise is if there is a market for Siri I would be willing to flip him for a prospect as well.
I say keep giving him two year 60 million dollar deals with player options until he isn't worth it anymore. First year being 35 million.
When you are making you're market price in salary, there is no excess value. And fans don't understand this. They ONLY consider field value on an annual basis. If Trout is making his field value in SALARY, he should not require anything in return. Fans just assume his salary and still want field value in addition. ie paying for him twice.
If we could get away with ignoring his ego, I'd love it, But remember his 2 year deal in 2020 was the highest AAV at the time. $36.1M/yr is far more attractive than $36M/yr because it's higher than Cole. Athletes are competitive both on and off the field. Scherzer was just an overpay, not market.
How about the nightmare scenario? Verlander is pitching better than Sherzer this year, and demands to be paid as such: 4-170.
And being the oldest pitcher I'm aware of to ever come off of TJS. Just not much to compare him to. Clemens, Randy, & Ryan are the guys to sort of compare him to as they were all big strikeout guys (Scherzer seems to be managing something similar in becoming a HOFer despite not breaking out until he was 28) and aged remarkably well. If he compared to those 3 guys over the next 4 seasons: Randy Johnson: 54-36 733IP 745K 3.73ERA (120ERA+) 17.3WAR Nolan Ryan: 49-46 875IP 1031K 3.23ERA (117ERA+) 16.0WAR Roger Clemens: 55-27 750.2IP 695K 2.83ERA (153 ERA+) 20.7WAR It would be hard to complain about any of those outcomes, even though outside of Clemens that is more of a #2 pitcher production. Randy missed most of his age 43 season, but Clemens and Ryan were their usual selves.
This might not be bad. $35M/1yr with a $25M player option ($5M buyout) and infinite $35M vesting player options (at 130 ip) after that.
If the Red Sox decide to have a mini fire sale, would guys like Martinez or Vasquez be too expensive to go after?
Regarding Verlander, Can you have vested player options or bonus based on reaching career marks instead of single season marks?
