Trade Tuck, trade Pressley if he waives his no trade, don't re sign Verlander. trade Montero for some cash to offset his contract anchor. Use that money to sign SOTO. Even if he sucks, he won't be the Astros kryptonite.
The comments in the other thread about trading Tucker got me thinking about what a realistic trade might look like. Here’s what I came up with: Astros get: 3B Brett Baty SS/CF Jett Williams IF Ronny Mauricio OF Starling Marte $8M Mets get: RF Kyle Tucker CF Jake Meyers Houston gets an elite prospect in Williams who probably slots at the top of their prospect list. They also get a big league ready high upside 3B and a high upside/risk young infielder with an option remaining. Finally, they add Marte to offset some salary and give Houston another big league outfielder to replace Tucker. The Mets add a superstar hitter in Tucker and one of the 5 best defensive CF in the league; their everyday OF of Tucker/Meyers/Nimmo would be the best defensive OF in baseball and one of the 5 best overall. The Mets also get first crack at signing Tucker. Keep in mind Stearns is a Luhnow era alumni so he probably is fond of both Tucker and Meyers. If Houston took Mauricio and added him to a package of McCormick and Caratini to get Lowe from Tampa (Mauricio is the exact kind of player they acquire and turn into a good player), Houston’s lineup would look like this: RF Marte 2B Altuve DH Alvarez LF Lowe C Diaz 3B Baty 1B Singleton (with Whitcomb or Dezenzo taking games against lefties) SS Pena CF Dubon Bench: Salazar, Whitcomb, Kessinger, Cabbage The crux of that deal and revised lineup would be Baty; if he’s not a good big league hitter then the lineup is much worse than 2024 and the team probably isn’t a playoff team. But if he hits, the lineup is very deep and the longer term outlook is dramatically improved. AAA would have a large group of position player prospects with legitimate star upside: Dezenzo, Matthews, Melton, Jett Williams, Leon, Mauricio, and Corona all have 20/20 potential with defensive value. I don’t think that’s a good idea for Houston to pursue and I definitely don’t think it will happen. But if Houston were to trade Tucker, that’s about the best type of deal we could hope for, and that’s a lot less than he would have brought back last offseason.
I'm assuming you are referring to Josh Lowe (the outfielder) and not Brandon Lowe (the 2B) in that scenario. If so, you're adding league average bats in Marte and Lowe to the lineup and Baty, who was bad in 2024 but is still young. Your only above-average bats in that lineup are Altuve, Diaz, and Yordan. Not exactly a contending roster. So I'm with you, I wouldn't make those moves. Not a contending lineup.
Brandon Lowe The lineup would project like: Above average Star Superstar Star Star Baty Above average (platoon) Average Below average
I like Brandon Lowe a lot, I agree with that rating. He hasn't played any OF in 3 years, though. He may be the 2B in your scenario, Altuve at DH, and Yordan as a full time LF, if he was up to it. You've overrated Marte, though. He turned 36 today. He's a part time player for the Mets and had a 104 OPS+ this season after being terrible in 2023. Doesn't hit righties well anymore. He's not above average at this stage of his career.
I'm not looking for this type of lineup and I'm not sure this lineup would be better than last years lineup. Give me a lineup that looks something like this. Altuve 2b Yordan DH Tucker RF Diaz C Lowe 1B Trade McCormick/Gusto/Melendez/Cole Robert CF trade Gordon/Ulolla/Melton/Leon/Nezuh Comforto LF Dezenzo/Baty 3B Pena SS
I would take this roster. I'm not sure if Brown brings in that many veterans, or trades away that many prospects. Lowe hits lefty, so playing him at 1b negates the solid platoon production they get from Singleton. I think if they bring him in, it's to play LF not 1b. For 1b I think they either bring in a guy like Walker or Yandy Diaz to start full time, or they use Singleton in a platoon - either Dezenzo/Whitcomb or bringing in a veteran like Solano or Santana. If they bring in Lowe and/or Robert they will be above Diaz in the lineup. Yainer's swing early, ground ball approach is better suited lower in the order.
I dont want Singleton in a platoon situation, a bench bat sure, getting regular AB's, no. I dont know about your last sentence. Although true, he did a great job of driving in runs in the cleanup position last year.
You seem to be in on a lot of platoon guys. O'Hearn never ever faces lefties anymore, that's why his #s look good. He's basically Jon Singleton. If you want that in LF, OK.
A Singleton/Dubon 1B platoon and O’Hearn/McCormick LF platoon could be a really cheap high quality solution in the 6-7 holes, with Pena 8th. They’d still need a 3B or CF who could bat in the top 5.
Twins owners just announced they’re selling. Often times teams will shed payroll before selling. In that spirit: Astros get: SS Carlos Correa CF Byron Buxton $8M (2025) Twins get: OF Jacob Melton IF Zach Dezenzo IF/OF Brice Matthews P AJ Blubaugh CF Jake Meyers CF Buxton 2B Altuve DH Alvarez RF Tucker 3B Correa C Diaz 1B Singleton/Dubon SS Pena LF Whitcomb/McCormick
The Astros ABSOLUTELY should be looking at platoon players. 1) they have a huge payroll issue and platoon players are cheaper than everyday players. 2) They have a 1b who, while not great, is perfectly acceptable vs RHP, along w/ a CF, 4th OF, and util man who hit (generally and historically) LHP very well. This makes platoon players very viable. I don't think people realize just how bad the 2025 payroll looks. Crane just paid about $4.5M in penalties for going over the CBT in 2024. The team is not getting a big playoff share from a deep playoff run this year. Crane has partners who will expect $$$ even if his priority is winning over $$$. The penalty for being over the CBT for a 2nd year is 30%/42%/75%/90% for the different tiers. I don't see anyway to avoid going into the CBT for a 2nd year but that means they absolutely won't must stay below it in 2026 and they will do everything they can to stay as low as possible in 2025. I do not see anyway they go into the 3rd tier, which limits them to about $36M to spend total for 2025.
I agree with your overall point but my understanding is that most of the partners who were in it for the money have been paid off/bought out.
