I bet that money goes to a guy like Fedde. If Bregs comes back I could see Pressly's money being spent on Fedde and trading a guy like Chas or Meyers to open up money for Palanco. I'm thinking since Palano used to play SS, he's a good enough athlete to put in RF, like Dubon was last year. Altuve LF Chas CF Palanco RF.
More than safe and more than decent. Rockets are #2 in the west on a 56-win pace. Just beat the Cavs at home, Cavs on road, Celtics on road in the last 3 games (best two teams in the East).
If the Astros sign Bregman - they are over the tax and while they can move Caratini - it will likely still have them over the tax this season. Bregman is likely the only guy out there Crane will go over the tax for and it’s speculation on my part, but if he hasn’t increased his offer by this point, he isn’t going to. Still - in the interim, pursuing Polanco with or without Bregman is smart. He is insurance if the Astros don’t get Bregman and if the Astros do get Bregman, he adds real value and the max hit in his contract won’t be insane. As I said last night, Polanco is the guy the Astros have been the most aggressive with according to what I have been told.
He may be the Astros best option. He wasn’t great last year but has been an underrated hitter for a long time.
Could the Astros end up with Polanco and Bregman? Yes- if the Astros decide to sign Polanco as insurance if Bregman doesn’t sign. Polanco can play the outfield and would get at bats with or without Bregman. Polanco is a very different player than Dubon. Polanco is a mediocre fielder but a VASTLY better hitter that has some power. Polanco can play third (but his arm is weak), can play 2nd/1st/corner OF well enough.
Polanco would not be the first player to go to Seattle and forget how to hit, and he's only 31 so age shouldn't be a big factor. If you look at his career track record and remove last season, it's not hard to see why the Astros would really want him. .796 OPS the prior 3 seasons(pretty damn close to Bregman) , and .780 for his career. Plus he can hit RHP which is what we we need. I think a bounce back is an extremely reasonable expectation. Barry Bonds isn't out there on the market, an "impact" bat isn't happening. Best you can hope for is a plus one.
You think they move either Meyers or Chas to clear money for Palanco if they sign Palanco and then sign Bregs?
If Polanco can play the OF then good, but he hasn't in his career so far. We have 2 true OFers right now in Meyers and McCormick and that's it. Everyone else is a slash and/or maybe.
And our starting RF is either our utility IF (Dubon) and/or a rookie (Leon, Dezenzo, Melton). Both Meyers and McCormick have "noodle" OF arms and should only be playing RF on a limited basis.
Polanco for the price, is probably the best option on the market. He had a down year, but still in the general prime age for baseball players. Almost certainly he would play LF, and he may be good there. If money were an issue, I'd trade Dubon to sign Polanco. The big risk there would be if Pena got hurt, Polanco is a terrible SS, but for spot duty, I'd live with that (or Bregman if he came back), plus Brice could make his debut this season, reducing that risk. What I'd do to go back in time and have them not sign Walker, have re-signed Bregman.
One thing to keep in mind when talking about Houston playing infielders in the outfield is that their 2 best SP are ground ball pitchers. Framber is the most extreme ground ball pitcher in baseball and Brown sits near 50%. So those 2 guys don’t necessarily need stellar defensive OF behind them. Blanco and Arrighetti are fly ball guys so they’d need to have a decent defensive OF behind them. Framber would likely be just fine with a Paredes/McCormick/Polanco OF behind him. That’s one big bummer about McCullers is he also gets an extreme amount of ground balls. The bullpen isn’t really a factor; Hader is a fly ball pitcher but Houston will always be able to sub in Meyers and Dubon as needed when Hader comes in. FWIW, Kyle Gibson, Jose Quintana, Spencer Turnbull, and Alex Wood are ground ball SP still left on the free agent market.
Genuinely curious on why you wouldn't have signed Walker? Bregman still may have left us regardless. We definitely needed an upgrade at 1B, too.
Bregman would playing 3B, and Paredes 1B. If we didn't have Walker right now, no doubt in my mind we'd have already have Bregman back in the fold. That is the value of hindsight. We didn't know he'd still be hanging out there back then.
