At a minimum, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera would like a word with you. Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr, Ronald Acuna, and Vlad Guerrero Jr probably do too.
I was verifying this when I saw your post. Some day, I hope, we will look back on this deal as Andersen for Bagwell like.
The way things are being disseminated here, a pitcher that can locate off speed stuff is a auto Meyers out.
https://awaybackgone.com/2021/08/30/cleveland-indians-already-clear-winners-myles-straw-trade/ Not that they should care, but it is an interesting perspective. I think Click saw it as a chance to "sell high" on Straw -- hoping to pick up a multi-year reliever and a decent prospect. Going into the offseason, the Astros basically had two positions (not counting catcher) where they didn't have a first division starter locked in -- CF and SS (pending Correa obviously). Straw was fine, but it was hard to imagine Chas and Meyers being significantly worse -- with some upside to be a whole lot better (which we're seeing now). Ideally, this carries through to the postseason, and if it does, it changes the offseason a bit. You obviously try and keep Correa, but you have two of your better prospects capable of playing there (Pena / Leon... who will also hopefully see another ~100 AAA ABs). You then have more flexibility to re-up an ace type for a couple of years and/or some back end bullpen arms and keep the window open (especially while Framber / Luis Garcia / Urquidy are cheap, and McCullers is locked in). But it's an interesting conundrum for a manager / GM -- Baker clearly loved Straw, and we saw how hard it was for him to play Meyers until his hand was forced. Gutsy move by Click. Now I bet Baker loves Meyers
I wouldn't say that but if I were a pitcher, I would throw junk at him all day until he proves he can smash him like he smashes fastballs.
On the surface of players traded, yes...CLE prob won the trade. But it doesn't address the overall impact on each club. Turns out Meyers + an improved bullpen > Straw, which is all CLE really got out of the deal.
Ultimately the Dodgers would have had to trade Alvarez, as he isn’t the best defender. He’s good for a few spot starts in LF, but he’s not by metrics standards your ideal LF. He is flourishing as a DH with a few spot starts in the field. But the true compensation for the Dodgers would have been for a solid group of prospect or another top tier ML player. Josh Fields, will know that he was the price for Alvarez on future trivial pursuit games. So the Astros get a legit DH, after giving away JD Martinez (I think the Astros released him or got peanuts for him from Detroit, can’t remember that part.) But Alvarez has the look of a top tier slugger for the next decades plus… And I concur, this seems like Anderson for Bagwell. Only difference was that Anderson helped Boston down the stretch, I think Fields was very subpar for the Dodgers.
Trying not to look too much into the stats just yet…he’s had just 72 ABs…the stats are pretty intoxicating outside of the 23:2 k:bb, but things will even out I imagine, unless we really have Torii Hunter 2.0 or something.
The prospect Houston got looked like a throw-in but so far seems like an important part of the trade. He has been crushing High A ball and will likely be in AA early next season. He has a pretty high ceiling as a catcher who would be a very good hitter with acceptable defense. He is already ranked in Houston’s top 15 prospects.
Korey Lee is built like Mike Trout, he is really strong, big wrists. Yainer Diaz is very promising. Hoping these two are All Star level Catchers.
What Straw is giving Cleveland right now is pretty much his realistic ceiling: .280/.330/.400 with steals and decent CF defense, which is roughly a 3 win player. He is extremely unlikely to make big strides in power or go from good to elite defensively. And in 3-4 years he will start to lose speed and his value will plummet. I expect his value to fluctuate from 1-3.5 fwar per season. Don’t get me wrong that is a valuable player and they don’t just grow on trees…except for in Houston’s farm system. I expect Maton to improve and be a very good RP next season, although he won’t match Straws value. So WAR to WAR this trade will very likely come out as a loss for Houston unless Diaz becomes something. This trade belies something that has surprised me about Click: he swings for the fences. Trading a high floor/moderate ceiling guy like Straw for a high ceiling prospect and a RP with untapped potential while forcing a high ceiling rookie into CF was ballsy. He’s made similar all or nothing moves: taking Whitaker and Santos in the draft, using all their intl money on Leon, etc. To listen to him speak you’d think he is the type to play it safe. But so far he has gone for it, on his terms. Admirable and if it works, the Astros could be a dynastic team like few in history.
I think trading Straw and gambling on McCormick/Meyers is fine, but it's hard to argue that the Astros got a good return from the deal.
I'd be very curious what else was on the table -- given the return, either the Astros really like the catcher, or there was not much else out there. I always thought a rental of Kris Bryant made a load of sense at the deadline -- as a potential offseason trial signing, Bregman injury insurance, and even "McCormick/Meyers suck as starters" insurance, he would've been a nice luxury over a bubble reliever. Maton reminds me a bit of Fiers -- interesting peripherals, multi-years under contract, but not necessarily great results.
We still have Maton for a couple years. We won't know who won this trade for a while. I think it is funny how everyone is over analyzing Meyers. My take is pretty simple.... he came up here and started hitting pretty much right away other than his stupid pinch hit appearances against closers. He's currently leading the Astros in batting average and 2nd in OPS. When he has a prolonged slump I might take a look at his advanced stats. Until then I'm just going to sit back and enjoy watching him. This isn't normal. Most guys not named Yordan struggle to start their careers. See Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker.....
Not to mention he’s out producing the guy who he replaced in the lineup… who Dusty was never going to sit… which forced the move in the first place.
He's the only reason I think the trade made sense. You give up years of cheap control over a decent MLB player for a replacement level relief pitcher just to clear him from the roster? Seems excessive, but you add in a prospect that maybe the scouting world is a little behind on, and realize there wasn't a huge value difference between the guy traded away and the next man up, and it starts sounding like exactly the type of moves that have lead to TB having such a prolonged period of success. Worst case scenario is you traded away a guy you can get back later. Guys like him bounce around the league every year, and their careers rarely go on very long, especially if they aren't elite defensively. I'd say he's a lot more Willy Taveras than Michael Bourn.
