[Official] Astros Offseason

Contract wise, as Yoshida is earning just under 20 mil for 2 more seasons.
How different is it for bos to bench Yoshida vs us benching Walker?

Looking at their lineup projection it shows duran as DH.

 

Yoshida is worthless defensively so if he isn’t hitting then it’s easy to justify benching him, whereas Walker has been an extremely good defensive 1B. But the other element of it is that Walker is one of the 9 best hitters on the team (he currently projects as the 8th best hitter).

Generally though I agree with you that a big part of the solution to the issue of getting Paredes in the lineup everyday is to play Walker less. Basically I think Paredes needs to be the “everyday” 1B, with Walker coming in against LHP (and Alvarez moving to LF to open up DH for Paredes). Then Walker would effectively serve as the backup at 1B, 2B, 3B, DH, and maybe even SS, since he can come in at 1B and Paredes can shift positions to backfill whichever player needs a game off. That probably gets Walker ~110 games, and that’s without injuries. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal for Walker to sit 50 games against tough RHP.

 

Walker has never played 2b, SS or 3b in his mlb career.

 

I hadn’t thought about Walker as the “backup” and sitting vs tough RHP, but it makes a lot of sense. If Walker comes out of the gate hitting like he did in the second half of last year, then we have a nice little problem on our hands.

 

Extremely team friendly, but also a great hitters park for him on a team he is comfortable with. But he is coming off good years as you said, so it seems the market has spoken on his value. Fantastic signing for Reds and maybe a trade chip to get prospects at deadline unless he has no trade protection

 

I agree that this looks good on paper.

But what happens when Paredes makes an error at first or can't get to a hard hit ball to his right that Walker likely could and costs the team a game when Hunter was in line for a win?

What if Walker isn't on board and complains and becomes a clubhouse cancer? He was benched in a game late last season and was not happy, saying ( paraphrasing because I do not have the exact quote) I came here to play everyday, I'm an everyday player.

Paredes and Pena are both playing for 2027 arbitration salaries so do not want days off.

Altuve and , to a lesser extent, Correa are playing for legacy numbers and potential HOF numbers and do not want to sit any more than necessary.

And most important of all, all of these players project to be among the 7-8 best players on the team. By sitting any of them, including Walker you are playing a less productive player in his place. Thats fine 40 times per year but not 110.

The bottom line is that this team has too many corner infielders and too few proven outfielders. Replacing any of Walker, Paredes, or Correa for an equivalent OF makes this team better.

 

You didn’t read or comprehend my full comment. I said Walker could “effectively” serve as the backup at those positions because he can play 1B which allows Paredes to move to 2B and 3B (and when Pena needs a rare day off, Paredes can play 3B and Correa can play SS).

 

Injuries are extremely likely to make it a non-issue. But in the interim, Walker is clearly the worst hitter out of the 6 guys vying for pa across the infield and DH, so it makes sense that he’d be the one who loses playing time first.

 

Agreed. If Paredes remains on the roster, I'd expect him to see a large chunk of his starts at DH and 2B, with the occasional spot start at 1B and 3B.

Let's say for 1B and 3B, he takes 1 game every other week to spell Walker and Correa. Over 6 months, that's 24 starts for Paredes between those 2 positions.

Altuve entering his age-36 season, needs more days off. Paredes soaking up like 55 games at 2B would probably be the only way to make this work with the current roster.

Best case, Yordan plays 135 games. He'd need to play LF a little more to open up the DH more for Altuve and Paredes.

 

Current off the wall idea: trade Meyers for a prospect and sign Marcell Ozuna to play LF. Playing time distribution:


Pena: 150 SS
Yordan: 120 DH, 30 LF
Paredes: 52 1B, 32 2B, 30 3B, 40 DH
Correa: 130 3B
Ozuna: 130 LF
Altuve: 130 2B
Diaz: 130 C
Walker: 110 1B
Cole: 110 CF
Smith: 110 RF
Sanchez: 52 CF, 52 RF, 2 LF
Salazar: 32 C
Allen: 12 SS, 2 3B

 

Ozuna in LF ( or anywhere other than DH)
2025: 0 innings
2024: 0 innings
2023: 14 innings
2022: 420 innings (28.8% of season) with negative results.

That was the most he had played in LF since 2019 and he has been a negative value fielder every season of his career

I think Altuve is an awful choice for LF but Ozuna is worse.

But I do like his bat.

 

Not bad. He actually hits right handers better than LH.

 

He is old (although only 4 months older than Walker) and bad on defense but he can hit and he might be willing to sign for super cheap to get an everyday role on a contender.

 

Man...Eugenio Suarez on a deal with less years and less AAV than Walker. What's the world coming to?

 

Rather have Walker. We good

 

Since the juiced ball went away Suarez hasn't been a particularly impactful hitter anywhere besides Chase Field. I think his OPS+ is almost exactly average for all teams expect the D-Backs (and his home road splits were stark)

I think there's a lot of valid concern that he will be nothing more than a league average bat. Still a great value play be the Reds, but not surprised nobody was biting on a long term deal.

 

Bro...

https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/jDuqw

 

Crawfish Boxes projections:

Pitching Staff:

Starters (6): Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Mike Burrows, Spencer Arrighetti, Ryan Weiss

Bullpen (7): Josh Hader (CL), Bryan Abreu (SU), AJ Blubaugh, Bennett Sousa, Bryan King, Steven Okert, Nate Pearson

Position Players:

STARTERS: Yainer Diaz (C), Christian Walker (1B), Jose Altuve (2B), Jeremy Pena (SS), Carlos Correa (3B), Zach Cole (LF), Jake Meyers (CF), Cam Smith (RF), Yordan Alvarez (DH)

BENCH: Isaac Paredes (CO), Cesar Salazar (C), Nick Allen (MI), Jesus Sanchez (OF)
​

 

Barring a trade, both Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker will be in the opening-day lineup. Paredes will likely be the designated hitter with Alvarez in left field and Altuve at second base.

The Astros aren’t sitting their second-best hitter to start Zach Cole or Cam Smith. Also, I’m going to keep saying it, but Cole struck out 20 times in 52 big-league at bats last season. If he doesn’t clean that up, he’s going to get exposed by MLB pitchers.

 

Cole needs to get his SO% down to 30% like Walker while maintaining over .800 OPs against RH. His OPS against RH last year was .958. He is also a plus defender and plus base runner. Definitely worth a shot as a platoon CF or RF.