I couldn’t do a year three with my money and 43 million for second year is difficult to swallow. Astros burned once with Verlander.Astros paid him for two years of no service, that had to play in the back of their minds.
Bringing back Verlander last season was 100% Crane, Verlander was always his baby. If Crane was willing to pay the money or not was entirely his call and not the GM. He decided he didn't like the risk, and sacrificing Monteros 11 million dollars alone wouldn't have gotten you Verlander and stayed under the lux tax.
I'm not convinced Verlander was ever coming back. He came back for 2022 due to guilt over getting $66M for 6 innings in 2020-2021 and I am thrilled he did. But the bottom line is that he was a mercenary and all about the biggest longest deal. I can totally see that if Crane did break down and offer 3 yrs/ $129 then Cohen come back with a 4 yrs/ $160M+ offer. I think the Mets were going to always outbid the Astros.
Verlander's money was used on Montero, Abreu, and Brantley as well as cover a chunk of Javier's extension past arbitration (assuming Verlander hits his vesting option as if he doesn't....signing him would probably not be good). I can see benefits both ways. The Astros probably choose the safer route.
That's Jose, not Bryan. But the point is 8 players in top 100 ... and the best bullpen in baseball with not a single player on the list. It's a good time to be an Astros fan.
Any update on them trying to stretch Abreu out as a starter? Seems like a good time to try keeping a 6 man rotation while Lance gets healthy, open up the option to trade Urquidy for a piece at the deadline if it's successful.
I haven't seen anything definitive in an interview or elsewhere that there is a plan to stretch him out this season. This seems to be conjecture by fans. It would be fun though to see if that could work. Maybe they could replace his presence in the pen with Dubin if LMJ ends up being shut down for the first few months of the season.
If each member of the everyday lineup and rotation matches their career high in fwar: Maldy 3.1 Abreu 5.3 Altuve 7.5 Pena 3.4 Bregman 8.1 Tucker 4.7 McCormick 2.2 Brantley 6.5 Yordan 6.6 Valdez 4.4 Javier 3.4 Garcia 3.1 Urquidy 1.8 McCullers 3.2 That’s 61.3 with nothing from the bullpen or bench. Crazy how good Bregman was in 18-19 and that they have 5 guys in their lineup with a 5+ fwar season on their resume and that it doesn’t include Tucker.
Well it's a very deep team even if players like Maldy or Brantley hitting these numbers again are unlikely. Bregman's insane 2 years coincided with MLB ball changes and overall higher offense. That said, I could see him still getting to 2018 numbers again. Chas's numbers are significantly less than a full season but he may never get 500 PA because of the depth this team has. I am hopeful for at least 3 6+ WAR seasons and maybe as many as 6-7.
Getting 50 war just from their top 15 producers would not shock me. There’s upside in Tucker, Pena, Garcia, Brown, and Javier.
