I If some combination of Altuve, Alvarez, Cole, Smith, Meyers, Dezenzo, Sanchez cover OF all season, do you feel any of these additions really make sense?
The key here is actually playing Yordan in LF. If Espada starts Yordan in LF 50+ games ( and ideally 80+) then fine. If Yordan plays 40- games in LF then another LH hitting OF is needed. And even then, it is quite easy to upgrade Sanchez Cole is far from proven, and all 4 Fangraphs projections have him significantly below. 700 OPS. If he needs to go back to AAA and Meyers reverts back to his feeble bat vs RHP this OF is in trouble.
I agree it is a big risk, but I think if is one the Astros have to take. They have too many inexpensive MLB-ready OF guys on the 40. And they have little space below the CBT.
No. If they think they can get 7+ war out of the non-Alvarez/Altuve OF then they shouldn’t add another bat. But that would require those guys exceeding their projections.
If they play everyday I expect Cam and Jake to combine for 5 WAR and there is a world where they get 7 by themselves. Defense and baserunning gives them both a very high floor. I would say Meyers' floor is 1.5 and ceiling is 3.0 while Cam' floor is 1.5 and ceiling (2026) is 4.0 The problem is that everyone else (outside of Yordan and Altuve) has potential for negative WAR. And how much playing time does Cole, Sanchez, and Dezenzo take from them.
I don't consider myself a Jake fan. I literally just said he has a 3.0 WAR ceiling. However, I do think the majority of fans underappreciate and under value him. He was on pace for 4.3 WAR when he injured his calf last year, playing 88 of 90 games and completely stabilizing the OF defense flanked by 2 players who had never played the OF before. He may have been my team MVP at that point. He has averaged 2.5 WAR per 500 PAs in his career and has as high as floor as anyone on this team. Still, I think last year was his best and would love Cole to come in and take the job from him because it will take a ROY type season to do that.
