Mildly surprised they are cutting bait with Corona and Leon. I take this as a good sign they feel optimistic about Kaleb Ort’s health.
My guess is Urias or Dubon - trade whichever makes more sense based in return. Sanchez - hopefully trade De Los Santos
Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery Obviously I'm biased towards the Japanese so I would love to add Imanaga. But between him and Montgomery, who would be cheaper and who has a better chance at rebounding/getting fixed by the Astros?? If the Astros feel either can bounce back, I wouldn't mind either as the 2nd starter they add. Not sure if they care if they have lefties or righties but with them potentially losing Valdez who's a lefty, I wonder if they would prefer Montgomery.
The Astros have never had any kind of Japanese player representation (the only one I can think of is Kaz Matsui and I can't remember for sure if he was Japanese). Do they even scout in Japan? I don't think the Astros will be interested in Imanaga.
Nori Aoki and traded for Kikuchi as a rental although they were interested in extending him for cheap(maybe?). Imanaga has been in the MLB the last 2 years so they'll have an idea on how they think he can do with their help going forward. But yes, straight from Japan, never seen them linked to anyone as of late. Also Bieber off the board. He's staying in Toronto.
I’ll be curious to see if the Daikin sponsorship ends up playing some kind of role in the Japanese market. It may not mean **** but it would be cool if it does eventually help attract more interest there.
if we had competency in the FO, we'd have 2 key Japanese players on the 2025 roster - Kikuchi and Seiya Suzuki. Unfortunately, we've got late to the game Dana and Crane, who don't front run like Luhnow but react to what the smarter, more monied teams do. Kikuchi was a no brainer resign at $20 mil a year after his dominant performance with the Stros, and Suzuki was there for the taking in the Tucker trade as an established veteran along with Paredes + a prospect (Cam Smith). The Cubs have a ton of younger outfielder prospects and were super desperate to pair them with Tucker. Suzuki is the perfect middle order guy -- another opp gone missing.
If it really is $12M/1yr then that’s a great deal. He’s a fine SP4. But ideally JV would be the 3rd SP they add. A rotation of something like Brown, Peralta, Pepiot, Verlander, and Javier (with Pearson available and several high upside arms in AAA) would be badass.
Suzuki was never on the table for the Astros. They asked about him. Kikuchi would have been fine to sign, but he did not have a great season last year and has two more guaranteed seasons at 44 million. If I am going to criticize the Astros, it isn't going to be over getting a player the Cubs did not want to trade and not signing a pitcher that had an okay season.
We will see - the Giants were very interested in bringing him back when their season ended. Verlander was 4-4 with a 2.99 era in 14 starts and 75 innings in the second half. He had some very bad look in July/August with balls in play finding open spots. I would be fine with Verlander back, I think he is no longer a 7-8 inning pitcher though. I think that he is a 5-inning pitcher, which means that the Astros will need someone else to eat innings. There are actually a lot of potential targets for a team like the Astros. Also it would be nice to have Verlander be an Astros if he reaches 300 wins and cements himself at the clear cut best pitcher of his generation.
The name I have heard the most is Sandy Alcantara, and I expect that is because he is capable of giving you 200+ innings which is what you got from Framber. The other name I have heard a lot is Rasmussen. Only other interesting tidbit that I heard is that the Astros really aren't just focusing on era - but want to add a starter that can start in the playoffs and win against top tier lineups.
The more I look at the roster the more I think they can get by with what they have on offense (and can even stand to trade Walker and Meyers). I am coming around to them keeping Sanchez to balance the lineup, and starting to think Matthews might provide an answer as a partner for Altuve in 2B/OF. So that leaves me thinking that aside from bringing back Caratini, they need to just go all in with whatever resources they have (money, a few decent blocked prospects) and focus solely on stacking their rotation. Their goal should be to come into spring training with Javier as their 5th best SP. I am hoping they might be able to get a trade done early in the offseason because I’m sure they were pretty far down the road on several SP at the deadline (Alcantara, Rasmussen, Ryan), so the frameworks should be easy to settle on.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-top-50-mlb-free-agents/ Fangraphs released their top 50 FA list. Guys I think might be decent values for Houston (contract estimates are my own based on Fangraphs info): 3. SP Dylan Cease $140M/5yrs 9. SP Ranger Suarez $130M/5yrs 17. SP Merrill Kelly $30M/2yrs 19. SP Zack Gallen $40M/2yrs 27. 1B/OF Ryan O’Hearn $27M/2yrs 28. IF Jorge Polanco $30M/2yrs 30. C JT Realmuto $30M/2yrs 37. IF Luis Arraez $14M/1yr + 2nd yr vesting option 39. C Victor Caratini $8M/1yr + 2nd yr vesting option 49. SP Zach Littell $22M/2yrs 50. SP Justin Verlander $13M/1yr If you think Cease will be a durable ace, that’s a steal. If you can swap out Walker with O’Hearn or Arraez and come away with the same or lower money spent, do it. O’Hearn probably allows them to trade both Walker and Sanchez, since he can play RF and LF in a pinch. Polanco is a steal at that price. So is Realmuto. The other SP are fall back options you can sit on and see whose price drops or wait to see if SP trades come through.
