Cots Contracts, Spotrac, and Baseball Reference have him listed as 3rd and final Arbitration season next year. Fangraphs shows him as a FA next year. I don't know which ones are accurate. His career is similar to Singleton's in that he played several partial seasons, not getting enough service time so didn't hit arbitration until 2024 eventhough his debut was in 2016.
We’ve got Whitley for 5 more years after this one. Time to start extension talks with him, obviously.
Are we already at the "players only closed door meeting" part of the season? Btw, those meetings are a signal that your manager sucks ass.
I actually am very high on Whitley and also McCullers, outside of health. If this team can avoid any other injuries that keep important players out of a potential postseason, and they are both healthy, this team could be very similar to, and better, than the 2022 team. FTR: Whitley's rehab started 4/9 so he must be activated no later than 5/9. Since he's a reliever and his injury was not arm related, he SHOULD be back earlier. Unless the entire bullpen is killing it, I would be worried if he is there the entire time. McCullers' rehab started 3/30 so he must be activated by 4/29.
C) Diaz/Caratini > Maldonado/Vasquez 1b) Walker > Gurriel 2b) Rodgers < Altuve 3b) Paredes < Bregman SS) Pena = Pena LF) Altuve > A.Diaz/Mancini CF) Meyers = McCormick RF) Smith < Tucker DH) Alvarez = Alvarez The positions players look very comparable. So, it comes down to pitching, which was exceptional in 2022. However Verlander and McCullers were in the rotation and either hurt or tired because neither were even close to as good as they were in the regular season. Framber, Brown, and 2 of McCullers, Blanco, Arrighetti, Wesneski, and Javier should be better than the 2022 postseason rotation. Hader, Abreu, King, Whitley, Ort, Gusto, along with some combination of the starters who aren't in the rotation should make as good of a bullpen.
Hmm. Not bad. 7th round pick from the Royals who was released and picked up by the Braves when Brown was still there. 70 grade splitter. Reminiscent of James Hoyt.
Patrick Halligan Draft: 2021, Kansas City Royals, Round: 13, Overall Pick: 379 College: Pensacola State JC, Pensacola State JC, FL
That joke is in poor taste, at least it tastes poorly to me. Now I am scared shitless that he will actually be extended.
I'm very high on Whitley, but our record on extending RP is not good I think he COULD be Bryan Abreu good for 5 seasons. I EXPECT him to be a net positive about 4 WAR total with 3 good, 1 iffy, and 1 bad seasons while spending about 25% of the games on the IL. Then someone who isn't the Astros will sign him to a 2 yr, $8M contract.
Meh. He's 25, decent stuff, there might be some upside there but it's equally likely that they just set a big stack of money on fire. I was hoping for something a little better I guess, but they must see something in him that they think they can work with.
If you consider that they DFA'd Montero last year, that $3M is totally found money regardless of what this guy ends up being.
Astros organization better have a Coogs appreciation game and put that entire team & Coach in some quality seats... Put a red/white/black spin on that color scheme for the unis for that game too... those dudes deserve the recognition.
