The season's been over for a few hours lets get this thing going. Offseason talk goes here. Acquisitions will get their own thread as well as newsworthy events. This thread will be for general off season talk and potential moves.
Wondering people's thoughts on the year? It was a bit of a dissapointment considering the expectations from last year, but it was still fun experiencing meaningful baseball after so many years of irrelevance. I think we have a good chance to make noise year now that more of the pieces are together. Should be an interesting off-season. Starting point in free-agency needs to be starting pitching. At least need some more depth, but we could use another ace with Keuchel and McCullers health in quesion.
Going to be an interesting off season to see which direction the FA heads. We have some top class young talent locked up to very good contracts in Springer, Altuve, Correa and Bregman and after the disappointment of missing the playoffs you would hope the FA can get creative in the way they build the roster. It's such a shame the SP free agency market is so poor this year, we definitely need some serious help there.
Priority list: 1. Ace 2. Outfielder 3. Catcher 4. DH/1B/OF bat 5. MoR SP (if McCullers or Musgrove is traded) 6. Another DH/1B/OF bat 7. Closer 8. LH Reliever #s 1-2 are must haves in order for the offseason to be considered anything but a failure. 3-5 are important for the offseason to be a true success. 6-8 are luxuries.
Potential blockbuster targets from other teams: White Sox: Sale, Quintana, Abreu, Robertson, Shields, Cabrera Rays: Archer, Cobb, Smyly, Boxberger Braves: Teheran, Freeman, Inciarte A's: Gray, Davis, Doolittle, Vogt Royals: Volquez, Gordon, Ventura Reds: Bailey Padres: Ross, Myers, Norris Snakes: Greinke Angels: Calhoun Rockies: Gonzalez, Blackmon Pirates: McCutcheon Yankees: Pineda Potential Free Agent Targets: C: Ramos, Castro, Weiters, Suzuki, Avila, Ianetta, Soto 1B/DH: Encarnacion, Pearce, Moss, Napoli, Moreland, Morales, Alvarez, Holliday OF: Cespedes, Fowler, Reddick, Beltran, Desmond, Pagan, Bautista, Saunders, Jay, Smith SP: Hill, Cashner, Nova, Anderson, Fister RP: Chapman, Jansen, Melancon
Encarnacion, Sale, Tehran, Cespedes. That would make a fantastic off season. Would be expensive as hell but would make us immediate favorites. Springer RF Bregman 3B Altuve 2B Correa SS Encarnacion 1B Cespedes LF/DH Gurriel DH/LF/3B Gattis C Marisnick CF Sale Tehran Keuchel McCullers McHugh I get a sense that Bregman might end up being the everyday leadoff guy eventually. I think he's better suited for it than Springer long term.
This is the first offseason in which I expect and require significant moves by the FO. Make it happen, guys! We've discussed them ad nauseam already..most of which are already summarized above. @leroy , I don't see Bregman as a leadoff guy. Let's see if his walk rate improves and K rate comes down, but combine those w/the fact that he's already around .800 OPS and ~25HR power makes me feel like I'd rather have him as a run producer unless the team *really* shores up the rest of the lineup. Bregs leading off would be a luxury.
I would trade McCullers honestly, just because any day, he may break down for good. Hopefully I'm wrong.
That would indeed be a crazy offseason but I don't see how they have the payroll for 2 top FA (Cespedes and Encarnacion), and I don't think Luhnow will part with the prospects necessary to land 2 ToR SP. Here's my best guess for the opening day roster: OF Springer 3B Bregman 2B Altuve SS Correa DH Gurriel C Gattis/Castro ($34M/3yrs) 1B Moreland ($9M/1yr)/Marwin OF Reddick ($55M/4yrs) OF Marisnick/Kemp Rotation: Sale (for McCullers, Martes, Feliz, Fisher, and K Tucker) Keuchel McHugh Musgrove Shields (salary dump comes with Sale) Bullpen: Devenski, Fiers, Peacock, Gustave, Sipp, Harris, Gregerson, Giles AAA: Stassi, Moran, White, Aplin, Teoscar, P Tucker, Rodgers, Paulino, Hauschild, Elieser Hernandez, Emanuel, Guduan, West, Jankowski, Hoyt DFA: Singleton, Fontana Lost in Rule 5: Grills, Holmes
Astros’ Search for Carolina Home Progressing September 30, 2016 By Josh Norris The Astros’ high Class A affiliate will be in the Carolina League next year, that much is certain. Where the team will play, however, is still up in the air. There have been efforts in recent days to begin the assembling and trimming of potential temporary homes for the new team, which will eventually be based in Fayetteville, N.C. Wherever the new team lands, it will play there for two seasons until the proposed new stadium is ready for the 2019 season. Now, Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan says, it’s time to start looking for homes for the present. “We’re just looking right now at lots of places that we could go,” Ryan said. “We really don’t have a public plan or a defined plan. We’re sort of doing an inventory of every place that we think might be a possibility right now.” Ryan didn’t elaborate on where the Astros had been looking, but noted that he and other Astros officials had been in and out of North Carolina in recent days and that the team hopes to have a facility in place by the end of October. He also said that the team had been looking primarily at old minor league stadiums and current college stadiums. Financing for an eventual permanent home in Fayetteville isn’t done yet, but is progressing. Cumberland County this week unanimously approved their proposed part of funding the stadium, which is expected to cost a total of $33 million. The county is on the hook for between 16 and 20 percent of that cost, which will be paid for in part by a tax increase. “Everything on the Fayetteville end is moving ahead on schedule, if not ahead of schedule,” Ryan said.
Great list If it were me and I dont know the contracts or $$$$ involved I would, Sign Hill to a 3 yr deal and knowing the cost of trading for Sale/Quintana etc I would trade for Pineda depending on the cost. My big offseason move would be trading for McCutcheon.
Solid list. I would add that the Astros have interest in Greg Holland. CJ Wilson has been linked in the past. The Twins and Astros have discussed Ervin Santana in the past. The Astros like Shoemaker in Anaheim. Yordana Ventura is a favorite of the front office.
Rich Hill is 36 years and the last time before this year he started double-digit games was 2009. He is a big time pass for me. Is this a thing? He's making $28.5MM the next two years and was not very good this year. Why would the Pirates move him - unless they think this year was the beginning of the end?
It sucks that we aren't in the playoffs, but there's no reason to be anything but optimistic. Our pitching staff needs a lot of help, and that's my biggest concern going into next season. SP 1: McCullers SP 2: Keuchel SP 3: McHugh SP 4: Musgrove SP 5: ? Obviously, you give Keuchel a chance to regain his mojo, but you thank Fiers and Fister and tell them to pack their bags.
90% certain Encarnacion will be signing with the Sox when you consider Ortiz is gone, they have $$$$$$$$$$ to spend and Edwin absolutely mashes at Fenway.
The local media in Chicago is reporting that the White Sox privately do hope to trade Chris Sale this winter..... but is likely to hold on to Jose Quintana. Chris Sale and Adam Eaton both are not terribly popular in their own clubhouse, and played a part in Robin Ventura not wanting to return. Chris Sale is going to come with a hefty cost; but what I don't think gets much coverage outside of Chicago is that Sale had issues during the course of the season with velocity. He had stretches where his fastball dipped and he was hit hard. Obviously the Astros should go after Sale, just be aware that he is not a sure thing in the future. His era has been good but not great the last few years. I am not sure he is a guy that should go over 200 innings a season.
