Love Smoak! Switch hitter, gives us a lefty option at first base, and power and discipline from both sides. Crawford Boxes will help his power numbers from the right side (his weak side), especially since he's very much a pull hitter as a righty. As for Stroman, I see his floor as a #4 or 5 starter, but that's okay. JV, Cole, McHugh, and Whitley are already a great 1-4, and Stroman has upside and maybe can be fixed by Strom. Plus, they'd fit right in with their old buddies Osuna and Diaz.
Important reminder Luhnow still the GOAT. How lucky we are that we don’t *need* to dish out 30+ million for average players. Our team is still set up beautifully for the future. A few areas we can improve, but people need to chill. Well be fine. 28 or 29 teams would switch places with our organization in a heartbeat.
A week or so ago I started thinking this was a very likely outcome and posted that standing pat or maybe one move was possible. If you go back and listen to Jeff Luhnow on Astroline he hints that he plans on running with the young guys.
Again...way too early, but I wonder if Luhnow thinks our best bet at retaining 2 or all of JV, Cole, and Springer is to avoid hefty salaries this offseason. Especially in spots where our young players have a chance to compete. Surely, they’ll look to upgrade where cost effective, but outside of that, JL may just be content with letting our core win the division, and make adjustments along the way. I like it. Especially if it enables us the opportunity to keep the core together longer.
Certainly all true - they have a fiscal crunch coming and it's hard to see how they solve it. But the other part of retaining JV and Cole (especially JV) is demonstrating a commitment to winning. JV's next contract may be his last, and I suspect he's going to want to be on a definite contender for his last few years. If the Astros take a step backwards this year, that likely plays into his decision-making. Cole, if he repeats last year, is in line for a mega-contract so we may be out of the running there regardless, unfortunately.
I said early on I would like to see the Astros extend Verlander and Pressly this winter. I would also consider McHugh as well. Pressly makes sense because he is estimated to only make 3.1 million in arbitration. If you give him a bump this year he might extend for a couple more years. Same thing with McHugh. Verlander will probably take 30 million per year at this point to extend. I'm not sure the Astros want to risk it. I don't see Cole signing an extension after watching Corbin get 140 million. If Cole puts up another year similar to 2018 he will be a 200 million dollar man all day.
Man the pendulum swings fast around here. One day Luhnow is expected to make at least 4 major moves, the next day the roster won’t change before opening day. All because 3 2nd tier pitchers signed with other teams. Houston has money. They have prospects. They have a glaring need in the rotation, and a couple of other areas (offense, SP, C) where they could stand to upgrade. There are well over 2 dozen players who are still imminently available who could improve the roster. There is a 100% chance they will add a quality SP before opening day. There is a better than 50/50 chance they add more than that. Everybody needs to relax and continue to wildly speculate about the guys who remain available, not freak out about the few guys who aren’t.
Irony... considering you had them adding Goldschmidt, Greinke, Pollock, and Diekman a week ago. Now it's a starter and maybe something more.... K By the way, totally just messing with you.
Inject the speculation into my veins. My nightly prediction will be Murphy 2y/21 and a trade for Taillon or Trevor Williams. My DK and Marwin reunion dream just doesn't look like it's in the cards. Wonder where they end up...
Ha, I never predicted they’d do all that, just discussing the possibility. My prediction hasn’t changed since October: a starting catcher, a ToR SP, and another bat.
If the plan is to save money to resign Cole I'm VERY fine with that. If he has another year like this one, Crain needs to pay that man his money. Totally worth it for that dominance while hes still in his prime.
I think Michael Brantley is the best thing on the FA market that fills a glaring need. Reddick is the only LH Bat in the lineup. I would re-sign Marwin as a fallback option. Keuchel is the best FA pitcher on the market but there’s certainly better options on the trade front. Signing an OF too a multi-year deal makes Tucker expendable. I think one of Ramos, Realmuto & Cervelli will be the starting catcher
Harper is easily the best thing on the market that fits our OF need. Brantley is a distant 2nd. Springer may be gone in 2021, so Tucker is far from expendable. We can always push someone to DH too. Just have to move White or Kemp. I don’t see us paying for any of those catchers anymore.
Yeah, I know Luhnow likes keeping his prospects and I still trust him and I'm aware that there's still time for a big move (see: Cole trade last January), but I think we all agree that a shiny new toy is a lot of fun.