Dezenzo played mostly 3B in the minors. If they let Bregs walk then I hope they add guys like Lowe, Robert and Conforto. Then give Dezenzo his shot at 3B.
If they let Bregs walk add 3 bats this off-season and next off-season you should have plenty of cash to do whatever you want to do in FA with Framber, Tucker, Abreu, Montero etc... coming off of the books. You could easily retool instead of rebuild. Then continue to build up the farm system over the next 3-5 years. Imagine if Dezenzo turns into this years Blanco as an example. I believe there are more options than Iso gave because I think there will be guys like Dezenzo, Matthews that contribute to the MLB club at different parts of next season and they will add 2-3 bats this off-season in trades and FA. Then in the 2025 off-season they will have plenty of money to fill in the other holes. Although replacing Tucker won't be easy.
This appears to be Astros Offseason Plan A. One year deals tend to be prove-it deals which limits the applicant pool. The Astros may want three stop gap deals, targeting 3b, 1b, and LF, but likely won’t land all three. On to Plan B, where the Astros trade one of their young pitchers for a “diamond in the rough” prospect who may be a year away from The Show. At the trade deadline, if the ship is sailing in the wrong direction, trade Framber and Tucker, as Plan C.
Outisde of signing Soto and reseting the window, the obvious answer to a well run organization is option B. With the state of the Western Division, even if you trade Framber and Tucker, you are still a likely contender for the Western division until another team proves they are capable of taking it. We still have a strong starting rotation, and can add another arm to replace Framber. You can hopefully trade Tucker for 2 MLB ready lineup additions with plety of team control and then add some upgrades with real MLB vets and not giving Singleton and Dubon more playing time.
Option B 1) Trade Framber. My current favorite is the Mets for LuisAngel Acuna, Brett Baty, and their #8 prospect Blade Tidwell. 2) Trade Pena. My current favorite is the Dodgers for Bobby Miller, their #6 and #12 prospects Justin Wrobleski and Nick Frasso. 3) Trade for Luis Robert Jr. The White Sox will want an overpay, but I think he is worth the risk based on his contract vs his ceiling and the other CFs available. I would send Melton, Baty, and their choice of 2 pitching prospects l. Let's say they choose Miguel Ullola and Jose Fleury. 4) Trade for Brandon Lowe. They need a catcher and it's been reported they like McCormick as a buy low guy. They reportedly are looking for cheap pitching depth due to the difficulties of playing in George Steinbrenner park this year (very hitter friendly and expected rainouts/delays). Let's say: Caratini, Chas, and their choice of Gusto, Blubaugh, or Gordon. 5) Trade away Pressly for salary relief and to bring in a lottery ticket prospect that Brown and his staff like. 6) Sign Bregman. The team has shown a commitment to extending the window by adding a starting CF (-2027) and LF (-2026) significantly improving the run production, swapped out a starting SS w/ 3 years of control for one who should be close in overall performance w/ 6 years of control, and replaced the lame duck staff ace with 4 potentially good SP who are all pre-arbitration and reduced payroll in the process.
Option B lineup: Altuve 2b Tucker (L) RF Alvarez (L) DH Bregman 3b Lowe (L) LF Diaz C Robert CF Dezenzo/Singleton (L) 1b platoon Acuna SS Bench: Salazar ( L), Whitcomb, Dubon, Meyers rotation: Brown Miller Blanco Arrighetti Garcia Wrobleski Frasso Tidwell France ( McCullers) ( Javier)
If they already know they are not re-signing Tucker they should trade him. He would garner a much larger haul in the off-season than at the trade deadline. Hopefully, they gave Bregman a deadline to make up his mind. If they aren't getting Bregman back then go ahead and trade Framber as well. Depending on how many bats we have coming in we could still compete for our division and it would set us up for 26 and beyond. Soto is a pipe dream. If we were willing to spend that money we would just re-sign Tucker for less. If we have to have a semi-rebuild for 2 years so be it. We have had a long run and if we hit pause for 2 years it is not a horrible outcome.
The problem with Houston taking 2025 off to reload by trading Tucker and Framber and not replacing them via free agency is that doing that wastes a productive year from Altuve, Alvarez, Brown, and any other productive players Houston has. That’s tossing $100M+ in value in the trash, and it’s worse than that because keeping those players likely keeps the Astros from getting high draft position. You either go for it or you rebuild. The only way serving two masters makes sense is if Crane is willing to fund replacing Tucker and Framber via free agency in addition to adding 2 other bats.
This 100%. But also, there are no prospects obtainable from trading Tucker or Framber who are likely to instantly turnaround the roster after a one year hiatus. There’s a great chance they fail or are mediocre or take years to develop.
I am not advocating trading Tucker. The offense is already lacking, and he simply can't he replaced. Framber, on the other hand is a perfect candidate. Starting pitchers only play a maximum of 20% of the season. Starting pitching has never had more value. The Brewers traded Corbin Burnes last season, in the same situation as Framber, for 2 top 100 prospects. 1 ended up being their Starting 3b and the other started 7 games for them and projects to be on the opening day roster. They still won the division. Trading Framber makes all the sense in the world, as long as the return is 2-3 young controllable players who are only very slight risks to not be MLB contributors.
I’m all for trading framber if they sign another lefty. Kikuchi would have been perfect. Framber is going to leave for sure in my opinion and he can’t be trusted. Sure he can have no hit stuff but he’s just not dependable in a short series.
Now that they let Kikuchi go, people need to pump the brakes on trading Framber. People have let his postseason struggles cloud their view of his immensely valuable regular season workhorse contributions. We aren't a 105 win juggernaut that can only think about October anymore. We wouldn't just be losing Framber. Ronel Blanco will not repeat what he did last season. All his peripherals suggest he was a league average starter who had a ton of BABIP luck. Blanco, Kikuchi and Framber started 41% of our games and combined for a roughly 2.85 ERA. We're replacing 67 starts of Cy Young level results with a likely substantially worse version of Blanco and coming off TJ Luis Garcia. That is likely a gigantic falloff in start quality, so no thank you. That team will not make the playoffs unless they bring in another really good replacement arm, which is just shuffling assets around to likely end up in a worse spot.
I prefer Plan B, I just don't think we can pull that off. I think it is way more likely that we let Bregman walk and let Tucker play it out and take the draft pick. We probably keep Framber too. The most likely scenario to me is we let Bregman walk, put Dicenzo at 3b and sign one journeyman OF to a short term contract, then depending on where we stand look for a deadline deal to help us in the playoffs or just continue to let it ride and go shopping after Tucker and/or Framber walk.
The most likely scenario is that Houston signs 2 3rd tier free agents and makes one 2nd tier trade. They would enter the season with one of the 3 best rosters in the AL but with minimal financial flexibility and one of the worst farms in the league in terms of top tier talent. 2026 and beyond would be almost entirely dependent on the Astros’ ability to develop their best remaining young players/prospects over the course of this season. If I were making a prediction for the opening day roster, it’d be: 2B Altuve RF Tucker DH Alvarez LF TBD (somebody like Brandon Lowe or Michael Conforto) C Diaz 1B Singleton 3B TBD (somebody like Gio Urshela or Jeimer Candelario) CF McCormick SS Pena Bench: Dubon, Whitcomb, Salazar, Trammell Rotation: Framber, Brown, Blanco, TBD (somebody like Andrew Heaney or Zach Littell), Garcia, Arrighetti Bullpen: Hader, Abreu, TBD (somebody like Hector Neris or Emilio Pagan), Scott, Ort, Dubin, Whitley 60-day IL: Javier 10-day IL: McCullers Traded: Meyers, Caratini, Pressly DFA: Hummel Optioned: France, Gusto, Gordon, King, Contreras, Hernandez, Dezenzo, Kessinger, Leon, Corona, TBD waiver claim, TBD waiver claim, TBD waiver claim
I bet they do this, I also could see Dana signing and trading for a couple of bats in addition to your post.
You could just as easily say that "starting position players only bat 11% of the time". A starting pitcher is 1 of 5 (or 6), a starting hitter is 1 of 9. Framber and Tucker have both been with the team for 7 years. In that time, Framber has faced 3,681 batters. Tucker has had 2.561 plate appearances. I'm not saying Framber is more valuable, but he's not a replaceable commodity. With Kikuchi gone, the rotation just can't survive Framber's loss. The team needs more star players, not fewer. Trade high on Blanco if you want to play fantasy GM.
