I thought it was a short sighted trade. No matter how good Kikuchi was Houston was not a playoff team last year.
As juicy already said, they won the division. They blew game 2 against the Tigers but who knows what happens if it gets to game 3 and you have Kikuchi on the bump. The players we traded away likely have a minimal impact.
I disagree with this. If you look at the entire organization, 2026 looks to be stronger than 2025, in my opinion. Framber, Rodgers, and Caratini are the only FA. Smith, Dezenzo, Gusto, Whitley, and who knows what bullpen arms will have their rookie seasons out of the way. Javier, McCullers, and potentially Garcia and/or France should be back. Blubaugh, Gordon, Ullola, and maybe others could prove to be innings waters/injury replacement type SP. Melton and Matthews are high ceiling/very low floor guts who could get opportunities. Lots of money coming off the books. Yes, 2026 looks like it should be better than 2025 which is looking fine itself.
Yep, even with Alvarez/Diaz/Walker sucking (I think they will come around) one more bat would make a huge difference. I dont see Dana making a move until the deadline though.
Former Astros among top 100 in MLB in fWAR this season: Position players: 9. Kyle Tucker 23. Wilyer Abreu 35. Alex Bregman 37. Tyler Heineman (?!) 48. George Springer 92. Myles Straw (?!) Pitchers: 73. Yimi Garcia (lol) Heineman, Springer, Straw, and Garcia all play for the Blue Jays. Bregman and Abreu both play for the Red Sox.
Good thing he's hitting as he's given up on playing defense. He was one of my favorite players as an Astro, and just clicking through videos of his defense is depressing. Just doesn't have that same energy that he use to play.
Considering Morton was considered retiring after his last season with us in 2018, he's had a pretty good ride. We helped him make quite a bit of money. We helped Verlander make a ton more money than he would have made. Verlander was placed on waivers before we traded for him.
I wish we would have just given Bregman the same 3-year contract he got from BOS. Losing him on one of these mammoth, long deals was understandable...but not even making a competitive short-term offer just didn't sit right with me. Our lineup would look great with him penciled in at 3B, and with Altuve having been moved to LF regardless of other offseason moves...we could have put Paredes at 2B or just traded him elsewhere.
Any of Bregman, Polanco, or Arenado would look great in the everyday lineup in place of Rodgers/Dubon. Brown knew who to target.
If Dezenzo is a 110 or 120 type guy then this lineup has exactly one bad offensive player in it, and that’s a gold glove caliber CF. If Dezenzo isn’t that guy then it will hurt that we missed on all 3 of the guys we wanted.
Yes but I find it odd that they would abandon the Altuve in LF move. I’m actually curious how bad Dezenzo would be at 2B. Todays lineup aside, the rest of the lineups and rhetoric seems to lean toward and eventual move of Smith to CF to make room for Dezenzo in RF, which would make 2B the lone weak spot, where Rodgers/Dubon (like Meyers in CF) represents a gold glove defender with a below average bat. Even if they’re cool with Altuve back at 2B full time, it still might make sense to try Smith in CF since it will be so much easier to find another great bat for LF instead of 2B. I think the backdrop of Matthews and Melton in those key positions in AAA is playing into the front offices strategy big time. The ceiling of this 2nd half lineup makes me excited: Altuve Alvarez Paredes Walker Pena Smith Diaz Dezenzo Matthews/Melton Aside from Alvarez batting 2nd or 3rd you could pretty much move those around in any configuration and be good to go with how well Pena is hitting. There’s a chance all 9 of those guys could be wRC+ >115 hitters.
Was just texting Andrew about this and his takeaway was as long as the first 3 is Altuve Alvarez and Paredes he doesn’t care about the rest of the order as all the guys seem pretty interchangeable. Thats probably right. I would have Altuve at LF and play Smith in CF and Dezenzo in RF for a couple weeks and see how that defense works. I’m not sure they are giving up on Altuve in LF yet, so much as killing two birds with one stone in getting him out of LF with a fly ball pitcher on the mound and giving Dezenzo a place to play. I’d like to see either Dezenzo or Whitcomb try 2B if the Rogers experience isn’t getting it done.
My assumption is they keep working Smith out in CF for 2-3 more weeks before sending him out there in either the late innings of a game that's out of hand, or a start w/ Framber or Hunter on the mound. And then have several games between CF starts.
They just need to pull the trigger on one or more of the following: Playing Rodgers every day for a month to determine if the experiment worked. Playing Smith in CF for a handful of games to test the waters; that (like Altuve in LF) not something that has to be immediate or all-or-nothing. Play Dezenzo every day for a month (doesn’t really matter which position) to see how good his bat can be this season. Number 1 and 3 are kind of incompatible but not completely because Dezenzo can technically play 5-6 positions. 2 and 3 complement each other.
