A lefty starter that rocks. Not one that is ass and coughs up so many runs. Or a dominant right flamethrower Cy young candidate. And healthy ones. And lots of luck too.
Houston Astros: Keep Yordan Alvarez Healthy 2025 Record: 87-75, 2nd in AL West Offseason Summary: Signed RHP Nate Pearson, RHP Ryan Weiss; traded for INF Nick Allen, RHP Mike Burrows In 2025, the Astros hit all sorts of headwinds in falling short of the postseason for the first time since 2016. But what really hurt was getting only 48 games and 0.7 rWAR out of Alvarez, who was hurt for much of the year. Injuries are always going to be a threat for Alvarez, but the Astros committed an own goal with how they handled the slugger last year. Suffice it to say that the next time he says he can play through pain, they need to push back. The last thing they need is a repeat of this year's hand drama.
If Houston wants to pull another shocker and signed Okamoto to play LF I would not be mad. I think he’s going to be a really good hitter for the next 2-3 seasons.
Only thing I don't like here is trading Meyers, unless of course we are getting back someone who can play a strong CF and has a better batting profile than Jake. Especially is we could potentially have games with either Yordan or Jose in LF along with Sanchez in RF, we need a great CF in that situation. I know Cole and Matthews could potentially be really good out there and have upside at the plate, but i'd rather then get shots in the OF along with Jake to find out first
Your last sentence is the problem, the cap (tax in baseball) isn't going to allow us to add anything either right now nor in season, and the only real way to create significant flexibility there is by moving Walker.
LOL, Altuve even in what most considered a down year, hit 26 HR and his .771 OPS was pretty strong. I don't want him in LF, and I know he isn't good defensively at 2B, but he certainly doesn't belong on the bench
As I said before, I think we were holding off on any big moves until we had the SP situation taken care of, which we now do There has likely been many discussions between Brown and others regarding Walker, but if none of them involved a SP that Dana really liked, then he would have been foolish to make the move then Now our biggest problem has been solved And we know exactly how much $$ it took to fix it so Dana has a much clearer picture of our tax situation Pitchers and Catchers are only about a month away, the holidays which almost always slow things down are over, I think we are going to see a lot of action across MLB this next week
I'm sure you are right about some people just wanting to discard him I'm one that has talked a lot about trading him, but I don't think he is anywhere close to worthless. Even when he wasn't hitting, he is an elite defensive 1B and that has a lot of value. I also believe his bat is better than a lot give him credit for. He was never going to be a high average high contact guy, but he can certainly drive the ball in the gaps and over the fence I just don't see how we open up any significant tax space without moving him, and the chances of getting through the season without needing to add is extremely low. Add in the fact that if we do move him we can slide Paredes into the lineup at 1B makes it a pretty likely move in my opinion
Going into ST, this is very true. Now have another top of/middle of starting pitcher. Other things can be fixed later.
Thanks for the insight, but what if we want to keep Walker. As I look at our top 11 salaries, Lance is making $17M and Sanchez $6.5M. Lance is biggest contract albatros we have and likely can't help us win unless he has a miraculous comeback. Sanchez has the tools, I’m just not sure about the rest. Are there any creative ways of moving those contracts, which would free up $23.5M and make it work under the cap (trades, buyouts, retirement/new role in org, etc.)? Or are we stuck and Walker or other talent have to go in order to make any more impactful moves?
Walker Sanchez Paredes Meyers ...not sure what other vets with meaningful contracts could be traded, assuming there's a market for them eta: I guess you could throw Diaz in there
Lance isn't going anywhere. Not only is there not a team out there that would take the salary, he has also been as "Pro-Houston" as anyone, and even if there was somehow a team who would take his contract on to acquire Arrighetti + or something along those lines, I can't see Crane doing that to him Sanchez could be moved, we wouldn't get anything for him but we could easily find someone to take his contract maybe for a lotto pick type prospect. And while i'm not a fan of his and wouldn't mind him being gone, that 6.5 million alone isn't going to make much of a difference. I don't think we have the prospect capital to go out and get a difference maker in LF that is still young enough that he is making 6.5 or less. The only way we are picking up a difference making bat like that would probably be to move Pena, and i'd put the chances of that happening at way less than 1%
And I think the chances of a Paredes trade are extremely low. He was brought in because Dana really thought he would be a GREAT fit in our park, and he was right. Even if everyone is healthy, there is a good chance he is our second best hitter, at a very affordable contract, and controlled two more seasons. I think the ONLY way he would have possibly be moved would have been in a deal for a young, controllable SP, and that isn't our biggest need at this point (although you can never have enough of those)
The only thing i've heard about that, and no idea if it has any legitimacy, but i've read a couple of places that they still have some worries about the hamstring and don't want him running around in the outfield. Again, no idea how legitimate that is
Yep. There are still about a dozen difference making players available in free agency and 90%+ of them will sign in the next 2 weeks. There are also bound to be a handful of meaningfil trades. We are in the homestretch of the offseason. I like the team as it is. I think it’s a 88-93 win team. But I would really like to see another move or two to improve the roster and/or the farm system. I think the logic behind trading Meyers is that his value is at its peak and Houston believes Cole or Smith or Matthews deserves a long look in CF. Cole and Matthews have 30/30 potential and project as solid defenders in CF (although Matthews may need reps to acclimate). We know Smith’s offensive potential and with some time I think he’d be more than adequate (I.e. Springer-level) in CF. I also think the total lack of available everyday caliber CF increases Meyers value. I don’t want them to trade him unless they get real value in return, but there’s been enough smoke around it that I assume the Astros have gotten that level of interest/offers.
It seems crazy to me that anyone would try a guy who was playing 3B in college one+ year ago or so, then learned RF (and learned it well), to now learn one of the 3 (CF/SS/C) most difficult defensive positions to play...all the while he's trying to fix what was wrong with his swing in the 2nd half of last season. Leave him in RF if he's with the Stros. If he's in Sugar Land, that's a different story and you can work in some minor things defensively. Biggest thing for him is at the plate.
