If you're in charge, do you let Gerrit Cole walk or pay him?

You would be a real moron to break up the JV and GC tandem...the best in baseball.

 

The answer is yes

Lock this until the offseason.

 

Last year Boston got 88 mil for winning the WS

 

Yesterday Boston's owners announced they are slashing payroll this offseason.

ETA: and they've already fired their GM

 

No...they didn’t. The entire pool split among all ten playoff teams was $88,000,000 with Boston getting the most. And that is the player’s share...not the owners.

 

Seems like a bit much to ask Crane to take losses in what should be his most-profitable years ever.

 

Hopefully we can resign him. He's several years younger than Verlander and Greinke.

 

Try to trade Greinke and others to keep Cole. You do not want to let your best young player leave, and he is so young who can be your foundation for several years to come.

 

Astros fans may never see another more dominant stretch than that in their lifetime... even if they do end up re-signing Cole.

We all know the concept of AAAA players... well this is a rarefied example of somebody who's just too good for the MLB level. Needs another league. Seasons like that come around maybe once a decade.

 

That's for Crane to decide. What is a legacy of having the only dynasty in Houston Sports worth to him?

 

I understand; that makes sense. Thank You for the reply.

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...s-MLB-tax-a-factor-in-re-signing-14486301.php

My takeaway: if they win the World Series they will go over the tax and make a serious run at resigning Cole. That will likely happen in tandem with dumping Reddick’s salary, along with potentially a few other arbitration guys (Devo, Sanchez, Marisnick, Peacock).

Part of me wants to partial rebuild to get younger and restore the farm to glory. Trade Gurriel, Brantley, Correa, Marisnick, Reddick, Greinke, Devo, and Peacock for 5-6 Top 100 prospects while clearing $70M in payroll. Extend Springer. Resign Cole. Let Diaz, Toro, and Straw compete for everyday jobs. Trade for a young LF. Field the youngest lineup in the majors while still sporting a Top 5 farm, a 95+ win projection, and plenty of payroll flexibility to add at the deadline.

 

That’s my reading of Crane’s thinking as well – – if you win the World Series we will have the revenue to go above the tax.

As far as your mentions of cutting extreme budget and getting younger, while I value the desire to think like a GM and be money conscious and youth conscious, we need veterans to help us win. We’ve also invested a lot of time, money and intelligence in getting these key players on our team. I don’t think they are going anywhere—except Reddick and Devo.

 

I agree with you, I was just spitballing. Dumping Reddick, Devo, and Peacock saves at least $20M and that’s enough to fill the glaring holes (C, a SP of some kind, a RP of some kind). Bringing back Cole and improving beyond that would be over the tax moves.

 

Trading Peacock is tough though given his value as a swingman for us.

 

Peacock lost a lot of the value he gained in 2017 by having injured or sub-par 2018 and 2019.

It can all be re-gained with an excellent post-season (esp if he replicates a game 3 WS bullpen performance), but I could see him being expendable if it truly does save them money.

 

But that loss of value is also why it is more likely to keep him, though I wouldn't call his performance sub-par. Given his injuries this year, I'm guessing he doesn't get much of a raise in arbitration. I think at $4M that is still one hell of a value.

I'd only want to trade him if it was for a quality return.

 

The only thing that comes to mind is Randy Johnson's half season with the Astros. Old times may point to JR Richard's season before he had his stroke. Perhaps older Astros fans can think of some runs by Nolan Ryan and/or Mike Scott, but your points stands. One of the best runs by an Astros pitcher ever.

 

Verlander's first 22 regular season starts in Houston weren't half bad. 1.65 ERA and he even had time to earn a ring in there.