[Official] Astros Off Season

peralta, brantley, yuli, kluber all on the cheap, along with abreu and re-signing montero would be a damn solid offseason. would be fine with rolling with maldy/lee in that scenario and re-evaluate C at deadline.

 

They looked at Contreras because he could be the back-up catcher and still provide value as the DH/LF. They have been reported as having interest in other catchers like Murphy, but I suspect that is nothing more than due diligence. Most of the catchers they have been tied to are back-up types like Barnhart and Alfaro

Vazquez has a career 85 OPS+ and an 84 wRC+, so yes, he is not a strong hitter overall, but is decent for a catcher

 

Most of the dreadful offense came earlier in his career. Even at his worst offensively over the last 4 seasons he wasn't Maldy level dreadful. An OPS 100 points higher isn't a marginal improvement, granted that says more about how inept Maldonado has been than Vasquez.

If the Astros had any faith in Lee whatsoever we wouldn't even be having catching conversations right now. He got called up last season, and we haven't stopped looking for catchers since.

 

I hope this is a legitimate trade proposal, though it is outside the box.

Astros get:
CF George Springer 11.1 33 4 years remaining on Contract 131 OPS+
C Jansen 24.9 28 2 Years Arbitration 141 OPS+
Total 36.0

Blue Jays get:
McCormick 31.3 MLB 110 OPS+
Tamerez 2.2 AAA 10th Ranked Prospect
Whitley 2.0 AAA 18th Ranked Prospect
Total 35.5

 

Did we not learn that Dusty is NOT willing to re-evaluate C at the deadline?

 

Vasquez had a lower OPS as an Astro than Maldy did last season.

 

Vazquez does not want back in HOU. But yes, almost anything is better than Maldanado and Lee.

 

I am not sure about that. I think the idea that the Astros have written off Lee as their catcher of the future is questionable. They understand nuance. There’s shades of grey between “Lee is a bust and we HAVE to get a catcher” and “Lee is 100% our guy”; I think the Astros thinking is something more like “Lee has a lot of potential but 2022 showed he still needs more development time, so we should probably bring in a more established catcher on a short term deal to pair with Maldy if the right deal presents itself”.

 

i didn't learn that, no. with vazquez being a catcher who they traded for at the deadline a few months back and all.

 

He split the time evenly between Maldonado and Vasquez and Maldonado outperformed him. Your narrative is false.

 

In what universe is this even a remotely reasonable trade?

Come on people, be better.

 

Projected WAR (Streamer)
Maldanado (1.2)

WAR projections of free agent and internal catchers that could be paired with Maldanado
Barnhart (0.9)
K Lee (0.3)
Alfaro (0.4)
Y Diaz (0.4)
Vazquez (2.0)
Narvaez (2.2)
Zunino (1.7)
Sanchez (0.9)
Casali (0.6)

The only remaining good FA options are Vazquez and Narvaez. Vazquez is very unlikely. Narvaez is a possibility.

The Astros may still believe in Lee, but the only way to play him is to replace Maldanado with someone better than a MAX 1.2 catcher. We don't have room for 3 weak catchers on the roster and we can't afford to roll with Maldanado and Lee only.

What is more likely: cutting/trading Maldanado or trading/blocking Lee? Given Dusty's comments at the Winter meeting, I think it's trading Lee.

 

In what Universe does the Money not Matter? The catcher is blocked (Kirk) and they need pitching they can't afford to keep up in the East. Tamerez and Whitley are gambles with upside, but they are blocked here.

 

Yeah- I knew you weren’t just talking about the head to head but did want to point out that the reduction in that does make divisional improvements less important than they otherwise would be in compiling a bunch of wins.
I was ticked when Springer left and really ticked when Correa left to sign a 1 year deal while we had more than that sitting empty on the cap sheet or paying d******d Odorizi. My grand plan for last offseason was trade Brantley, Yuli and Odo (you could have gotten off all those deals for free in the off-season) and sign Correa and Marte or Bryant. That would have been similar money out (44 out in correa arb and the other 3 with 50 or 55 in- we actually had enough. We could have done all 3 I think). I’d have played Correa at SS, Peña at 1B, Marte at CF and Bryant at Lf and when Correa walked after his 1 year deal Pena back to SS and Bryant at whichever of LF and 1B was harder to fill this off-season.
I am convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt the team I laid out would have been better than our team last year and better set up going into this year, but… we’d have missed out on gG Peña, Chas in CF making that catch in. Philly, Yuli with s couple decent hits, and who knows what else. Results don’t match process in baseball all the time and those moves that made the team better throughout 162 may not
matter if Peña isn’t hitting 2nd to dump a stupid low slider into CF before Yordan 3 runs HR’d. And maybe we go down 0-1 and press and lose to Seattle in 4. It’s such a dumb game sometimes. I can’t imagine they don’t do something to get better form this point in time. I also don’t think it will be as significant as we want.

 

Maybe because Vazquez is not enough of an improvement over the other options to justify his salary, contract length, and play time demands?

 

Those aren’t the only options. Acquiring a catcher to pair with Maldy for 2023 while Lee spends the year further refining his game in AAA in anticipation of taking Maldy’s roster spot in 2024 is a totally reasonable option. Lee is only entering his age 24 season and has only had 3 minor league seasons; he has 2 option years remaining.

 

August 2 (M)
A 3 (V)
A 4 (M)
A 5 (M)
A 6 (V)
A 7 (M)
A 9 (V)
A 10 (M)
A 11 (M)
A 12 (V)
A 13 (M)
A 14 (V)
A 15 (M)
A 16 (M)
A 17 (M)
A 18 (V)
A 19 (M)
A 20 (V)
A 21 (M)
A 23 (M)
A 24 (M)
A 25 (V)
A 26 (M)
A 27 (V)
A 28 (M)
A 30 (V)
A 31 (V)

August: Maldanado hit .204; Vazquez hit .340
August usage: Maldanado 16 games; Vazquez 11 games

S 1 (M)
S 2 (M)
S 3 (V)
S 4 (M)
S 5 (M)
S 6 (M)
S 7 (V)
S 9 (M)
S 10 (M)
S 11 (V)
S 12 (M)
S 13 (M)
S 14 (V)
S 15 (V)
S 16 (M)
S 17 (V)
S 18 (M)
S 19 (V)
S 20 (M)
S 21 (M)
S 22 (V)
S 23 (M)
S 24 (M)
S 25 (V)
S 27 (M)
S 28 (M)
S 30 (V)

September: Maldanado hit .220; Vazquez hit .163
September usage: Maldanado 17 games; Vazquez 10 games

O 1 (M)
O 2 (V)
O 3 (M)
O 4 (M)
O 5 (M)

October: Maldanado hit .250; Vazquez hit .250
October usage: Maldanado 4 games; Vazquez 1 game

Maldanado and Vazquez were practically equal defensively throughout August-end. Maldanado was awful batting throughout the time Vazquez was brought to the Astros. Vazquez had a hot bat in August but Dusty continued to roll with Maldanado 61% of the time. What did Dusty do in September following Vazquez' SIGNIFICANTLY better August? He started Maldanado 70% of the FIRST 10 games of September. This effectively caused Vazquez to start to slump. By the time Dusty started giving Vazquez more games, it was too late. He was ice cold.

This was NEVER an even split. Dusty played Maldanado over Vazquez through a hernia and broken hand when he had Vazquez on the bench 63% of the time!!! Vazquez dominated Maldanado through August and Dusty rewarded him with less playing time in September and October.

Your narrative is false.

 

A gold glove OF who hits 25+ homeruns, steals 15+ bases, hits LH and has four seasons left of team control is worth the loss of Garcia or Urquidy. There’s plenty of non expensive starters that can replicate the 3.75-4.00 era of Garcia/Urquidy.

 

The other options are trades. This is the route I hope we go.

 

Conforto, Narvaez and you don’t really have any holes. Do that, don’t stupidly bring Yuli back and that leaves you probably 8-12M at the destine to add if a hole does spring up during the first half of the season.