Wish him nothing but the best. He was an absolutely spectacular postseason closer for us. As of this moment the MLB team is clearly worse off, we'll just have to see what happens with the money we saved.
Paredes in LF for 2025 is what I heard as well. Then the Astros manager said that he hasn't worked Paredes out in LF at all, so some fans are grabbing onto that. Paredes isn't very fast - but Bregman/Arenado are no brainers for 3rd base because they are gold glovers there..... that leaves Altuve and Paredes. I will take Paredes arm in LF. In 2026 there may need to be a discussion about Altuve, and whether he can play 2nd much longer - but I don't think that is the case in 2025 yet. If I were Paredes, I would want to move to second where I have a chance to optimize my offensive production.
I still think the best outcome is trading Paredes for an equally valuable player who plays OF. If that’s simply not an option, then the next best thing is cobbling it together. Play Altuve in LF at home and in other parks with smaller LF, preferably with Meyers or another CF with plus range. That probably gets him 80-100 games where the impacts of his defensive limitations are minimized. Then he can play 2B on the road in parks where LF would be a bigger problem for him. To me that seems like a viable plan to keep Altuve as an everyday player while minimizing his defensive shortcomings and without playing any other players out of position and without risking Alvarez to injury playing in the field more; and it should be a plan they can use for the remainder of Altuve’s career. There will probably be 5-10 plays per year where Altuve being in LF hurts the team and it may cost them a win each year, but overall it’s a good way to maximize the talent they have on the roster.
Last year: 2b= 551 total chances 3b= 430 total chances LF= 301 total chances. If it is only a question of maximizing defensive effectiveness you put your weakest defender in LF. Of course, range, arm, and other skills should also be part of the decision.
And that can be reduced if you have Meyers or another player with plus range in CF. I’m sure a significant number of those chances were McCormick or Dubon getting to a ball that Meyers also could have gotten to. Altuve’s limitations will only factor into the most difficult 10-20% of those chances. So if he plays only 70% of the time in LF and the CF reduced his chances by 10%, he’s looking at ~180 chances, meaning ~15-40 plays where his defense actually matters, and likely only 5-10 of those come in close games.
I have mixed feelings on this. I see why this needed to happen now, but none of it was Pressly's fault. In my mind he deserved to finish his current contract as the Astros closer, he did nothing to deserve losing the closer job and he got kind of dogged when we signed Hader. The money on Hader could've been used on other needs, but I also understand being proactive in finding Pressly's replacement. I didn't like how obvious it became he was unhappy losing the closer spot. This is also a lesson how a bad couple of contracts can really mess things up, there would be zero need to dump his salary if Abreu and Montero weren't owed all that damn money this year. I expect Ryan to do very well for the Cubs now that he has a definitive closer spot again.
Rarely does having a good CF help having a limited range in LF except on cans of corn and running to the wall to keep doubles/outs from turning into triples. Here's all the plays that were a 75% catch Porbability or lower that Meyers made last year. The difference in a great LF and a bad LF does not overalp much or if at all with Meyers's range on well hit balls.
If Alvarez can play left field, so can Altuve and Paredes. Yes Alvarez has a cannon of an arm, but he's slow as molasses.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I do think there’s a chance there were balls Meyers could have gotten to outside of that zone that he didn’t even try for because McCormick or Dubon had them easily.
