Guess Atlanta making win now trades rules out any chance of the Astros adding Morton. Buxton or Bryant seem like the biggest ways Houston could improve their roster.
Sometimes the best move is to not make one at all. I won’t be upset at Click if we don’t make any more moves. We’re not in a position of weakness, great roster, comfortable lead, good future outlook, and pretty damn high ranking offense and pitching stats all things considered. Making a move for the sake making a move is not what prudent GMs do. I don’t think we need Buxton or a lot of these options if the price is just asinine. We could always use pitching depth surely, but we’re positioned pretty damn well now and into the future.
Yeah, the Astros are in on this (or were as of this morning). When I hear that the Phillies are interested.... then I start to wonder if the cost is just going to be too high. While he gets hurt often, he is one of the only players that would be a clear up grade for the Astros both on the field and in the box. If Buxton ends up with the Astros and is hitting 7-8 in the line up, then the Astros are appreciably better.... also Buxton is someone that really would make a difference defensively.
This. The Astros are not going to over pay, because they do not have to. If the Astros decide that they will keep Buxton long term, then I am fine paying a little more.... but signing Buxton to an extension likely means Correa is gone (I personally think he is gone regardless).
I think Correa is gone too. For what it's worth, I was at the game Tuesday and sat behind the Astros dugout. I started talking to a guy in the row in front of me. The guy said he was a friend of Correa's who had left him tickets. I mentioned something about Correa coming back next year and he was pretty sure he wasn't. Obviously this was some random guy at a ball game, but it just kind of felt true.
If this was a certainty then I'd love for Houston to look at Bryant in a trade right now as insurance.
Here's a name I'm surprised isn't being discussed... John Means He's 28 and under club control. By the time Baltimore is competing he's either gone or out of his prime (or long since retired). Garcia could make sense for them because of his age... throw in a Tyler Ivey and Freudis Nova and i think it gets it done... I think he's no worse than a #2 in the playoffs... Not as tested as Scherzer but a cheaper option on payroll...
A team that trades for a player has a good shot at resigning him. Doesn't always happen, but I'd rather be that team that already has him and can negotiate. It may be just as much as a risk to resign him as it would be Correa, and I wouldn't give everything to get Bryant by any means though.
Why is the luxury tax overage such a big driver for these decisions? I don't get it. It's not like if they go over by a million a $30 million dollar penalty kicks in right? It's 20% of the overage? I mean if you go from $180m to $200m payroll that's an 11% increase. If you go from $200m to $220m that's really going to then be an extra $2.4m by my calculations in luxury tax which again makes it work out to about an 11% increase. The luxury tax is such a marginal difference that i can't believe teams are weighing it very heavily at all if it could be the championship piece.
With Correa definitely going to be offered a QA this will come into play. "A team that exceeded the luxury tax in the preceding season will lose its second- and fifth-highest selections in the following year's Draft as well $1 million from its international bonus pool. If such a team signs multiple qualifying offer free agents, it will forfeit its third- and sixth-highest remaining picks as well. If that team loses a free agent, it will be awarded a Draft pick immediately following the fourth round. The Astros, Cubs and Yankees exceeded the threshold in 2020."
It's mostly about penalties for our qualifying offer candidates(Verlander/Correa). Our draft picks will drop two rounds and we'll lose international bonus pool money.
We’ll it’s also the downgrading of comp picks when you go over the luxury tax. I think Correa and possibly Grienke will both get a qualifying offer and if they sign elsewhere, the comp pick for them will be in a lower round.
