My dream is Bregman back and Verdugo (Parades playing LF a good bit in that scenario), but in the realm of not paying CBT this year, Polanco & Heyward would make me feel like we pieced together a good enough team to compete for another WS. Melton potentially could fill the role of Heyward/Verdugo, but we need at least one proven veteran LHB OF on the roster (excluding Yordan), even if it means pulling a Moneyball move and moving a guy like Polanco to the OF.
If they prioritized picked Heyward over Aunker I’m ticked. Unless they think Heyward can play CF. If the plan is Yordan, Heyward and Dezenzo in the Of with singleton at DH against RHP and Chas Jake and Dubon in OF with Yordan at dh against LHP that’s probably pretty good offensively. You’d obviously pretty liberally defensively substitute when you have the lead defensively with the Yordan/Dezenzo/Heyward OF.
Heyward is washed. He's 35 and has been below average offensively for 3 of the past 4 years. He's also lost range and hasn't played much center since 2019. Dezenzo has barely ever played the OF, at any level. That might be the worst defensive outfield in the majors, if they ran that against RHP.
Heyward is limited to platoon duty in a corner OF, but he’s still got value. He was very good against RHP in 2023 (122 wRC+) and average against RHP last season (101 wRC+). If he’s Houston’s 7 hole hitter against RHP that’s better than McCormick or Pena or Meyers or Dubon project to be.
I'd honestly appreciate if Joe (and/or with Dana's advice) to play "pick the position" out of a hat for some spring training games. ...whereas (C)atcher would only be for those who have played the position-- but I'd like to see some OF/IF shakeups. Of course we're going to have your everyday starting players <--> positions, but *if* the unfortunate opportunity ever reared its turtle-head, I would want to be confident in knowing I can plug-and-play guys into roles (on a contingency/emergency basis). I think Pena is athletic enough to play an OF position just as much as I believe some of the reoccurring OF cast are able to play IF positions. (There was a time in which, if my memory serves me correct, 4LV4REZ had either played some 1B and/or was talked about plugging into in the beginning... maybe parallel universe-- who knows...) A good baseball player is simply that-- a good baseball player. I'm gonna want to see this roster BE ABLE TO fill in wherever/whenever necessary and/or as needed. Keep em on their toes.
Outfielders and infielders are as good as they are at their positions thanks to playing it for years or decades of their life in thousands of games. Putting some guy in a new position for a handful of spring training games isn't going to make him suddenly competent there just because they are athletic. If it did, it would be a sad statement on the value of tens of thousands of hours of actual defensive work. That's what makes a guy like Dubon so valuable (or Marwin Gonzales in years past). He can fill in whereever you have the injury.
3 weeks until pitchers and catchers report. 5 legitimate star/core players still available in free agency (Bregman, Alonso, Santander, Flaherty, Pivetta). Another half dozen SP who could potentially start a playoff game (Scherzer, Kershaw, Gibson, Heaney, Lynn, Quintana), and another probably dozen guys who could play in a contender’s everyday lineup (led by Kim, Profar, and Polanco). Should be an active next 2 weeks. If Houston stands pat with their current roster heading into the season (which would be a major surprise to me), I will take it as a very strong signal that the front office believes at least one of Dezenzo/Melton will be ready for an everyday big league job fairly early in the season.
I would Pedro Leon to that mix. I too would be very surprised if Brown does not add another OF before the end of Spring Training.
If spring training started today, I think there would be 3 roster spots up for grabs (2 OF spots plus the 13th position player spot), with Singleton, Trammell, Hummel, Leon, Dezenzo, Whitcomb, and Melton competing for them, with Salazar also an option for the 13th spot. Singleton, Trammell, and Hummel are all out of options so would have a slight leg up.
There is a non-zero chance that none of the three (Singleton, Trammell, and Hummel) break camp with the MLB team.
Of course. Ideally, none of them do. But if Houston has a lot of faith in Dezenzo or Melton, it would be fine to give Trammell or Hummel ~200 pa to start the season to see if they can be something while they stash Melton or Dezenzo long enough to get another year of control, especially if Trammell or Hummel looks really good in spring training. And Singleton as the 13th position player is totally fine since he’s shown he has good value as a PH against RHP. But yeah if all 3 of those guys are on the roster opening day then something bad probably happened.
Houston could feasibly do what the Guardians just did; they could trade Montero and some of his contract along with some international pool money to the Jays or Dodgers. That could free up payroll without trading Pressly.
Don't sleep on Salazar making the squad this year. He has experience in the infield and, obviously, at C. He's the reason why Victor might be expendable. And he's a good coffee follow, if you are into that sort of thing.
They played him in CF last year down the stretch a little which surprised me, because I thought those days were done. Yeah- it’s a bad defensive Of. That’s why I said I’d expect wholesale defensive replacements in the mid to late innings of you got the lead. I’m not strongly advocating for that- I’m guessing along as to why they let such an obvious and low cost move, both at the deadline and during the winter, get away from them.
McCormick/Meyers/Dubon would probably be one of the best defensive OF in the league, and above average offensively against LHP. They’d be awful offensively against RHP. They really only need 1 really good bat. They can scrounge together a platoon to fill the last spot.
