I'd do that Verlander deal in a heart beat . . . but I can't imagine he wouldn't get 10-15 guaranteed somewhere. Sacramento would love him.
Sign Bregman $200M/7 Trade Framber for Abreu and prospects Trade Pressly Sign whichever upside 1B and reliable BoR SP have their market collapse; trade Caratini if required (don’t think it will be) LF Paredes 2B Altuve DH Alvarez 3B Bregman C Diaz RF Abreu 1B Goldschmidt CF McCormick SS Pena Bench: Dubon, Caratini, Meyers, Trammell Rotation: Brown, Blanco, Heaney, Arrighetti, Garcia, Wesneski Bullpen: Hader, Abreu, Scott, Ort, Whitley, Dubin, King/McCullers/Montero That roster with a farm that has added Smith and 2 other good prospects is badass; even if they do without a 1B and have Singleton in the 7 hole I’m fine with it.
That’s right at 225 in payroll counting dead money, plus 25M in FICO/ others. Probably 10M into tax line. If you really need under tax you can trade Montero with a marginal prospect at the deadline and that should be cheap as it’s only about 4M for rest of the year but his money you already paid him doesn’t count for the year. As long as the team washing that transaction doesn’t come close to the line should work, right? I’d love that organization.
I like it. The only worry is too many platoon bats on a 13 ( position) player roster. If the team has a b/u catcher and Dubon, the good news is every position has a backup. The bad news is that only leaves 2 bench/platoon spots left. If you get 2 OF to platoon with Chas and Jake ( a move I really like on the field) then you need an every day 1b and not a platoon partner for Big Jon. FTR that's what I prefer, I just wanted it out there.
I don't really want Goldy or Arrendado, I feel it's too much money for less productive players than when we got Jose Abreu.
I really like Yelich But his contract is bad. 4 more years @$26M + a $6.5M buyout in 2029 for a guy w/ back issues that may be chronic? For me it's about the length more than the money. I could see him relegated to DH soon, or even on the IL 50+ games per year.
Astros can’t be in on Yelich. Too much risk he’s a DH only and they already have Yordan in that role.
So now that Tucker is gone, and replaced with nothing, we need a right fielder. Clearly, the Astros are not interested in MVP caliber players in their prime, so let the patchwork continue. Also, Bregman is gone and we all know it. We cannot start the season with this roster, the way it currently sits. I mean, I guess we can but surpassing 80-85 wins ain’t gonna happen. This is an average team, unless the pitching really surprises.
Current roster projects for 90-95 wins. People don’t understand how much last years 88 win team underperformed due to injuries and Abreu/McCormick underperformances.
I dont see 90 wins. And if we are truly at 90-95 wins now, that means we are right there and just need one more good piece. Even if Bregs stays (which he won’t) we still need to add a good bat.
Once Arrighetti and Brown stopped s**tting the bed in literally every single start this team basically played at a 100 win pace the rest of the season, even without Tucker for most of it.
We aren’t winning anything with that pitching staff. And once again, if we end up in that situation where we are leading the division but clearly need pitching to actually compete in the playoffs, it’s going to be expensive to add at the deadline and everyone here is going to cry about it again.
Arrighetti Aug era 1.95, Sep era 3.92. Clearly figured it out. Blanco era under 3 when taking out Jun-Jul when he was gassed. 0.75 era the last month of the season. Brown era under 3 after May 1st. Clearly figured it out. Garcia career 3.69 era. McCullers career 3.48 era. Javier expected back by August, career 3.89 era. I fully trust the Astros ability to find good value in SP on the FA/trade market this offseason, whether that’s Wesneski, a FA like Heaney, or somebody else. Their AAA rotation will also be light years more experienced and talented vs what they had there last April. Trading Framber absolutely introduces more risk to Houston’s pitching staff, but it plays to the market and Houston’s strengths.
