Astros Off-season First Glance

Astros Off-season First Glance:

Here’s what I think our priorities should be: 1. Resign Correa a.) if we do go to Priority 3. b.) if we don’t go to Priority 2. 2.) Sign a competent SS or 3B (since Bregman supposedly can still play SS) on a short term deal (Marcus Semien, Andrelton Simmons) 3.) Build up the Bullpen (Resign Kendall Graveman other FAs available: Brad Hand, Rasiel Iglesias, Corey Knebel, Mark Melancon, Andrew Chafin, Ian Kennedy, Craig Kimbrel, Jose Alvarez, Astros Legend Collin McHugh) 4.) Sign a SP (Marcus Stroman, Kevin Gausman, Corey Kluber, Noah Syndergaard, Robbie Ray, Anthony DeSclafani, Carlos Rodon, Brad Peacock)

Realistic Expectations:

Correa: Not going to sugarcoat it he is gone. The only thing I see bringing him back to us is his love for the players on this team and Altuve especially. Crane gave him a “laughable” offer in his opinion and he knows he’s the hottest commodity on the FA market this off-season. He sounded like he was using the past tense talking about the team in Postgame pressers yesterday and was giving massive Gerrit Cole vibes of having a foot out the door….but I completely understand the man deserves to get his pay-day. He was the leader of the team the last 2 years since the Sign Stealing Scandal and was the only one man enough to say “Yeah we did it (we know others did it too) and we’re man enough to admit it, now come beat us”. He will be a massive hole on our team and nobody in the league can replace him (Literally none he was 3rd in WAR this year with only Zack Wheeler and All-World Team Shohei Ohtani ahead of him).

Way it happens: 7 years $240M Likelihood of Happening: 5% Likelihood of Resigning: <1%

Short Term SS Plan: Bregman was drafted as a SS he supposedly can still play SS….I don’t believe it but that’s because this past year his hamstrings were shredded cheese. Bregman is went from bargain after his fantastic 2019 season to someone I view as being overpaid and has started to move down the list of my most liked players. It seems he clearly was the massive benefactor from cheating is looking like he’s an above average player and can’t seem to stay healthy. Dont love him at SS but we might have to go down this route. We have Aledmys for next season who’s cheap and a decent bat/glove but I think to remain a competitive contender we need a FA.

To me this is Marcus Semien. He’s older than the star studded SS class (31) and I feel is slightly overlooked compared to his counterparts in FA. He was incredible this year and has been a top 10 AL player the past 3 seasons. However I don’t think we’ll sign him because all signs point to him staying in the North. Highly unlikely we see Semien in an Astros uniform I’d put the odds at lower than our chances are of resigning Correa

If we focus on defense. Andrelton Simmons is the guy. He’s maybe the only other player in FA that can do what Correa does….on the defensive end. But I think with how loaded our Lineup remains: Altuve, Brantley, Bregman, Yordan, Yuli, King Tuck; he should be our cheap option to fill in the massive defensive hole at SS if we can’t sway Semien or resign Carlos. This would also allow supposed Super Prospect and Correa 2.0 Jeremy Pena to develop in AAA a little longer.

Bullpen: I’m a big believer in keeping things together and success will come out of it (Look at the Core 4) and with our struggles this year in the Bullpen during the Regular Season they were nothing but phenomenal in the Playoffs. Other than Yimi in the ALDS and Javier’s collapse in the WS they were utterly insane (0 Javier slander allowed he was huge in the ALCS). That being said I’d love to keep Graveman. He can keep the Three Headed Snake of Stanek, him, and Pressly while also providing Multi Inning Relief. Maton has proved all of the doubters wrong and was Spin Doctor Phil this postseason (what did he allow 1 run in total?) him, a healthy Pedro Baez (if that ever happens) along with our Lefties can be fine. Brandon Bielak and Peter Solomon are on the brink of being total MLB guys and can be solid Long/Middle Relievers.

If we can’t resign Graveman there’s a ton of great High Leverage guys out there (see the list above) and there will be someone out there we can land. I want Chafin he’s a cowboy on the mound and an absolute alpha. Iglesias is good too and would be a nasty addition but would be pricey.

Bridge with Rotation and Arm Barn:

Another Bullpen move that could happen this off-season and is Cristian Javier could be traded while his value is high and he still has the ability to be a starter. We still have LMJ, Framber, Luis Garcia, Urquidy, and Odorizzi as our rotation at the moment. That’s 5 guys and Javier doesn’t fit into the rotation (at least with the last 2/3 of last season showed) I think we trade him for a good haul. Possibly package him and 1 of our 3 Rookie CFs and a prospect for Chris Bassitt since the Oakland Teardown is imminent. This could add the starter we need to have good success next year.

The other option with Javier, and the one I prefer as a Cristian Javier enjoyer, is make him that Second Setup guy with Stanek and use him as a High Leverage Backend Bullpen guy and reform the 3-Headed Snake if we can’t nab Graveman in FA. He can pitch a great Inning as well as provide Multi-Inning Relief like Graveman.

The other thing is what do we do with Odorizzi, Garcia, and Urquidy if we land Bassitt….simple move Odorizzi to the pen he’s got 2 more years on his contract but 2023 is a player option and with him being unhappy after the season this year I think realistically he’s only in Houston for 2022.

I’m a little concerned about Garcia since we used him a ton this year and he hadn’t worked that many innings in his young career. But holy God what a season he had. He was absolute nails and without him we don’t make it as far.

Starting Pitching: We have 6 viable guys that can start. Question is are they good enough? After this disastrous postseason you’d think no…here’s the thing I think they are capable. You might think I’m an idiot for that opinion but let’s go through Garcia, Urquidy, and Framber’s perspectives. They were expecting Greinke, LMJ, and Odorizzi to be the top guys. I don’t think any of them were expecting to be in the position they were in. Framber especially. Framber turned into the Ace for us for the ALCS and WS and if you guys remember there was a high possibility that Framber was going to miss the entire year with a finger injury. This man miraculously recovered by May and pitched incredibly well in the regular season. I think he needs to work on his Changeup and develop a Slider or some type of 4th Pitch and he can be really great with how effective he is as a Groundball Pitcher. Urquidy is a great option for SP3 and has an incredibly low WHIP. He pitches like Verlander as a Flyball Pitcher and pounds the Strikezone (57% of his pitches were in the Strikezone which led all MLB Starters with 100IP). Him and Framber are drastically different in style and I think seeing one and then the other would throw off a lot of teams next year. Luis Garcia was phenomenal and his potential in my opinion is through the roof. We just need to make sure he stays healthy and isn’t overworked. LMJ and Luis need to get rested this off-season and who knows maybe Odorizzi is the guy we expected him to be next year and worst case scenario we add could add Cristian Javier back to the rotation.

Now what I expect to happen is we go full panic mode after watching the Playoffs and look for a big name starter. Not a bad thing, I just think there’s other ways to spend money to make the team better. Like shoving the money at Correa and just focusing on Bullpen (Arm Barn) this off-season. However I think Carlos Rodon, Kevin Gausman, Marcus AStroman (see what I did there), or Robbie Ray would be incredible in our Rotation. LMJ and one of those 2 would be a great Ace-SP2 combo.