I have not heard anything about them being close to signing him personally. The last I heard any Astros news was on Adam Duvall and I passed it on a day or two ago. I know that the Astros and a group of teams have kept in touch with Boras, but that doesn’t mean anything is imminent. The Astros also have kept in contact about Duvall and Taylor and other outfielders. Having said that - Ken Rosenthal doesn’t report non sourced news. If he says the Astros are trying hard to get Snell, then I believe him. I also know that Crane has made positive comments about Snell in the past. I don’t know how the Urquidy injury changes all of this as I have heard zero today on a signing. I wish I knew more… but this isn’t like Hader when I was told over and over again that Crane was going to try and sign Hader and he wanted him back after losing him.
Playoff rotation of Verlander, Snell, Framber, Javier with McCullers, Garcia, Brown, Abreu, Presley, Hadar in the bullpen feels like a wet dream.
IIRC, Verlander is teaching him a 2-seam sinker For better or worse, but **** it it's gotta be fun eta: https://www.mlb.com/news/j-p-france-has-new-pitch-ready-to-build-on-2023 It was a gesture deeply appreciated by France, who appears to have secured a slot in Houston’s Opening Day starting rotation and is adding a sinker this year to give him a pitch to throw inside to right-handers. The rest of France’s arsenal -- he threw a fastball, cutter, changeup, curve and slider last year -- goes away from right-handed hitters. “You can tell it has good movement and is going to be a good pitch for him,” Altuve said. “Just the fact you know he has a two-seam coming at you, you stop diving forward. It could have two effects: one is good movement and gets you to roll over and the fact you know he has it is going to put hitters in a tough situation.”
Only 1.5 weeks left before season starts, Boras needs to fill his clients with teams. With G.Cole likely out for the season, Spankees need him. Stros better not over pay him because in 4 years before his Cy Young this year, he went 25-26 and his ERA around 3.75. He will be better for the Stros, but getting Boras' contract number instead of the Stros number is a mistake. Boras specialties are the Opt outs, remember Carlos Correa signed with the Mets, Giants?!?!?!?.
Let's put one thing in perspective. Snell could exceed his value next off season by going to the Astros even for 1 year and out. He goes deep in a playoff run and the offers may be massive compared to going to another team that needs him to be THAT guy every game and doesn't even make the playoffs. Hopefully we can convince him of 2 years at least before opting out but I'd take one easily, even at the cost of a draft pick.
Holy **** it actually might be happening. As someone posted before.... if all healthy in the playoffs: JV Framber Snell Javier Plus the bullpen.... Holy ****
This upsets me in a way that I feel we could've pulled the trigger for both Hader and Snell last year and had a better shot of winning it all. But if we wouldn't have won anyway then at least we saved on draft picks and trade value.
If everybody is healthy it would be an all time great pitching staff top to bottom. Playoff rotation of Snell, JV, Framber, and Javier with a bullpen of Hader, Pressly, Abreu, Brown, McCullers, Garcia, Montero, Urquidy, and France…that’s sick.
