That’s supposedly their offer, but there’s undoubtably some gamesmanship going on. If you’re the Astros, you just go to 3 years $60 million if you thought that would do it, but I doubt it would. Contreras minimum acceptable offer right now might be 4 years $70 million with a 5th year vesting option at $15 million. I don’t see either club going for the 5th year, so it may come down to whether a club guarantees a 4th year vs a vesting option.
I'm just pointing out what he gave us in the role he had here and it was terrible, below replacement level. Is it possible that if given an everyday starter job he'd hit better than Maldonado? Sure, but that's only due to how pathetic Maldonado is at hitting. Vazquez would still be the worst hitter in the lineup and that's something Korey Lee could potentially be....so why spend money on Vazquez? I guess it doesn't really matter now since Contreras went to the Cardinals, we'll just have to accept that there will be a black hole at the end of our lineup.
Blue Jays could also be a potential trade partner for a catcher. Wouldn’t give up Brown in any deal for Murphy
The Astros are the best team in baseball, and with all these elite players scattering to different teams, they should remain that way. The Astros are not in a position where they need to desperately overpay - there will be cheaper players later in the offseason to add depth as needed.
More teams would love a 6 man rotation but it takes 7 starters to pull it off with injuries and what not. Most teams barely have 2 good starters and 2 average starters. We have 1 great, Framber, 3 maybe 4 good starters or at bare minimum above average. Brown is an unknown but I'd bet his floor is league average. His ceiling next year could be a good starter. Our average pitchers are blocked in AAA.
Astros could pivot to Gabriel Moreno of the Blue Jays. Would be a Long term answer young lots of control. Also Astros still in on Reynolds
The problem is the idea of an "overpay" With the value of contracts being signed now an overpay is not the same as it was a week ago An overpay last week is the correct value today and will be a steal tomorrow.
Astros get: C Ryan Jensen Jays get: RHP Jose Urquidy Throw in a prospect swap a la McDermott/Murray if needed to finalize the deal. Jays get the starter they need, Astros upgrade the C spot (Jays already have Kirk/Moreno). Sign Kluber to be SP5 Rotation: Valdez, McCullers, Javier, Brown, Kluber, Garcia Pen: Pressly, Montero, Abreu, Neris, Stanek, Martinez, Mushinski
Moreno is a top 5 prospect in all of baseball. No way Toronto trades him without Houston gutting the team. Jansen. Or maybe Kirk are realistic.
Yes. I’d prefer Nimmo, Conforto, Hanniger (I know he just signed), Peralta, Peterson, that Japanese guy who just got posted for sure. Others who I’d probably like more than Benitendi if on a short deal for light money so we could go get someone else good might include: Gallo, Brantley (like 6M with incentives up to 12M tops) Grossman, Calhoun. But, if they sign Benitendi I will be fine with it and consider it an upgrade from the trash we we’re running Out at the end of the year and playoffs in Lf/DH whichever Yordan wasn’t playing. Going like 3/43 out of Lf/DH non Yordan division is so incredibly bad and will be almost impossible to replicate on a WS champion.
We need to accept the fact Maldy and his .172 ba in 21 and .186 ba in 22 is our everyday catcher next year. Big hole in the 9th hole.
It’s not awesome, but if they sign Nimmo or Conforto than I will just roll my eyes and sigh and ponder what might have. Even while we have 8 above average MLB hitters in our lineup instead of 9.
If Willson is gone, it should help with all this debating going on in this thread. At least we will still have SkyGodz mad skills at trading hypotheticals.
So, let me get this right.... Crane screwed up vetoing the Contreras trade.... when the Astros won the World Series AND were able to keep a starting a pitcher under control for several more years..... that would likely cost at least 4/52 million to replace in free agency? Also, they already wound up losing Verlander, so they would end up losing two starting pitchers in one off season? Crane is easy to take advantage of by agents.... yet he was out bid on Verlander and Contreras? The Astros need a GM, but the criticisms seem made up or not accurate based on what has transpired.
