Unfortunate, but not unexpected given how long it has been <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> manager AJ Hinch says Luis Valbuena will have season-ending surgery on his hamstring.</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/768188659568775169">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hinch says Valbuena out for year <a href="https://t.co/fm9cukW30W">pic.twitter.com/fm9cukW30W</a></p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/768188290184937472">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Any word on when Gurriel is going to get back in the lineup?? Between Valbuena and McCullers, injuries are becoming a problem.
Would've loved to see Valbuena at 1st instead of Reed down the stretch. Even though Reed is picking it up, Val had become a pretty reliable hitter for us. But hey, more opportunity for Reed.
Valbuena's injury timeline.... Not serious 15-Day DL Not back after 15 Not back after 25 Surgery, out for the year
Will this essentially exclude him from qualifying for a QO? Or may he still qualify? I would love to receive a comp pick for him. I dont see Val in our future. The average age of our infield is 23 years old (Bregman, Correa, Reed, Altuve). Add the addition of Gurriel, and I just don't see the ABs in the future for Val.
I don't think you have to "qualify" for a QO. You just offer it to him, or you don't. Will the Astros offer him a potential 1 yr/16-17M deal, when the FA market for a 31 year old who ended the season on the DL might not blow that out of the water? I don't know. I could see them thinking "offer Valbuena the deal, because he'd be silly to accept it knowing our infield glut and likely inability to get a long-term deal after next season". But if the long-term offers out there are things like 3 yrs/20M...wouldn't he be silly not to just accept the QO and deal with the consequences? Without additional info, I probably wouldn't risk the offer.
Yeah, just looked it up. QO is calculated by averaging salaries of 125 highest paid players. Only "qualification" I found is that the player, to be eligible, must've spent the entire previous season with the same ballclub. So, players traded at the deadline cannot receive a QO.
Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: The current estimate is that the qualifying offer for MLB free agents will jump from $15.8m last winter to $16.7m this winter.</p>— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/758361771971342336">July 27, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> No qualifying offer(s) if it's gonna "blow up" their offseason like Colby Rasmus.
Qualify for a QO? The Astros can tag him for the QO if they want. It does make it significantly harder for Valbuena to get a multi-year deal at his age, i.e. turn down the QO. I don't seriously see them offering Valgood the QO but i hope they think about it. He was a top 5 bat on this years team and giving that up for nothing sucks. If they think he's worth 2 WAR in the DH/1B/part time 3B role they should give him the QO. No he's probably not worth 16.7m but the limited commitment is really attractive (a la Rasmus).
Unfortunate. He kept this team afloat for a while. He's very likely played his last game for the Astros.
