Free agent deals I like: Haniger $43.5M/3yrs Bell $33M/2yrs Heaney $25M/2yrs Manaea $25M/2yrs Narvaez $15M/2yrs Clevinger $12M/1yr Gallo $11M/1yr Zunino $6M/1yr
And so many don’t give them credit for doing it this way, even though we have been by far baseballs most dominant organization for 6 years and counting
I like a majority of those also But none of those deals would move the needle half an inch for those complaining about Crane
Agree with most But spending up to the tax just to do so is a recipe for disaster. We are the best in season team in baseball. We don’t have to win the offseason to win it all again
I think some of our skepticism as fans is because we saw Rockets ownership cost the city a championship specifically because they wouldn’t spend into the tax. The team was managed well with good roster construction, but when it came time to spend, we froze. Crane deserves more of our trust because he’s actually won it all…twice. I believe what’s actually happening is that he’s trying to win across time. If he ever stops extending players, then I’ll become skeptical.
Obviously not but postseason baseball is a crapshoot. Best to try to stack as many odds in your favor by adding depth.
That’s a good value signing for them. I’d expect Brantley to go in a similar range. Also starting to wonder if Conforto may go for less than we expect.
I think if Conforto was willing to do that it would be fine already. Seems like he is probably asking for 2 guaranteed years of significant money. My guess is he will end up getting something like $30M/2yrs with an opt out and performance bonuses.
you’re probably right, but I wonder how much risk you assign to a guy who was out for a year with a shoulder injury.
He is definitely on track to benefit from this hot market. Normally he would be looking at a 1 year make good deal under $10M, but now he’s going to get paid like a solid proven healthy above average starting corner OF. Hell, it wouldn’t shock me if he beat Brantley’s last deal, where Brantley was coming off healthy seasons of high productivity.
I wonder though. In his 2021 season, before he went out, he had an ops+ of 100. I don’t know if we would be getting the .800 ops version of Conforto.
Verlander for one. From what we’ve heard we could’ve gotten there on a 2 yr, possibly without the option. But we didn’t get particularly close. Spare me the hand-wringing that a 2 yr $86m contract would’ve drowned this franchise. It sure as hell wouldn’t, especially if it led to more deep postseason runs. If not JV, I would’ve looked to add at least one other inning eating starter. And for how critical THEY told US getting a new catcher was, offering 3 yrs for Contreras when the Cards, another very financially prudent organization, were willing to offer 5 speaks volumes. Same w letting Vazquez walk after that. What a lot of folks are ignoring are Crane’s own comments and actions leading up to this. He’s the one telling us they can never have too much pitching, need a catcher, need a LH bat. He’s the one that fired his GM for allegedly not being “aggressive” enough, to which many on here gladly supported. The expectation to make several needle moving deals weren’t just clutchfans fantasy rumination - it’s literally the expectation the franchise set. It’s ok to want to hold them to that.
