But a MOR would have cost even more money. Montero gets a bad rap. He was absolutely terrible much of last year, but RP are inconsistent and a bad week or even a bad outing can drastically hurt the optics and the numbers. The Astros saw him as a high stuff leverage reliever who was instrumental in their 2022 success and paid to hang on to that. Yes they paid a lot, and yes he looked bad often early. But he's an Astro and I'm hopeful he can have a great year and help my favorite team win a W.S. From June 29th through the end of the year he had a 2.75 ERA with the 2nd most innings in the bullpen, only 2/3 of an inning behind Neris. He also allowed an OPS of less than .700 so was perfectly fine. Fans turned on him after his terrible June and gave him no respect for turning it around and helping the Astros win the division throughout the last 3 months of the season. I hope to see THIS Montero this year.
I’m higher on our starters than most I think last year we had guys coming off of the long season pitching into November and then some to the WBC I think Javier specifically was worn out pretty much all year. Framber was also rode hard down the stretch in 22 and into the long playoff run I expect Framber and Javier to be dominant this year. Javier will never be the guy who goes deep, but he could be absolutely one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball I worry about JV because of age catching up to him. Problem with JV is he could likely benefit from some rest during the year, but he isn’t wired that way and will resist it But I think we have what will likely be the best rotation in the AL this year, which is why I’m so against any Framber trade talk
What the team did with respect to pitching in 2022 was very unheard of, and we might not ever see that again. I believe there were only a total of 7 starters that pitched in 2022. Then what the bullpen did during the postseason will go down as one of the best bullpens in playoff history. Health played a huge factor in 2022. Most fans and media were sold that Houston had enough depth to cover the loss of Justin Verlander in 2023. It was very unrealistic regardless of Garica going down and McCullers. A few of us were calling out that this team needed another arm just because of the long post season in 2021 and in 2022. You also throw in the WBC. Dana Brown admitted on his interview with Todd Kalas last month that team knew they were thin on pitching prior to the 2023 season. I am still hopeful that Houston will be able to sign someone before the season starts. There are too many unknowns with McCullers and Garcia. There just isn't a lot of teams out there that's going to spend money right now. This offense should be much improved even though I'm not sold on Meyers, and I hope I am completely wrong. This team also needs Pena to have his head on straight this year. He has some things going on from what I was told.
Random tidbit... the Texans drafted the QB that competed with Tom Brady for the starting job at Michigan... how is this Astros related? Well... Drew Henson originally was drafted by the Yankees to forego his NFL career, but... he was one of a handful of third base prospects in their system... which became a moot point when the Yankees acquired A-Rod... which led to... another one of their prospects in Mike Lamb being traded to Houston. Texans owning the rights to Henson ended up trading him to the Cowboys. Henson couldn't muster it with Dallas... which led to Tony Romo.
I agree and I think the front office should have taken that into account last offseason and added some SP depth.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/astros-kyle-tucker-avoid-arbitration.html $12M for Tuck, that’s about $600k below projection. I think so far the Astros have netted about $1M below expectations.
The Astros are paying $51.5M for 4 pitchers who will not be in their opening day rotation and combine for a projected 2.8 fwar. Fwar is a bad measure to value relievers but it sure seems like Houston has spent a lot of money on their bullpen and it carries a lot of risk, especially considering how tight money is for the Astros right now. I’m not sure I want them doling out another significant contract to a RP. If the Astros could package up Urquidy and Montero in a salary dump that cleared $15M from the books and maybe brought back a lotto prospect that then allowed them to sign Jordan Hicks, that might be worthwhile.
He just turned 35 with a vesting option if he gets to 50 appearances. Of course he is "looking to stay in Houston." He wants another guaranteed contract.
Pressly, Verlander, and Altuve all would probably prefer to stay in Houston for the remainder of their careers, but all 3 of those guys are well past the peak of the aging curve and WILL decline dramatically sometime in the next 5 years. Father Time is undefeated. Houston might resign/extend any of those 3, but they shouldn’t be counted on to be star/core players beyond the next 2-3 seasons at most.
