It still doesn't seem real....

Too soon

I hate everything.

Trade for Trout and Realmuto. Sign Nelson Cruz and Clayton Kershaw. Retain Marwin. Find a badass knee procedure for Altuve so he's ready to go by spring training. Get rid of the Crawford Boxes.

Get a legit DH plus a catcher that can catch the ball. Then throw Tucker out there and see what happens with the offense.

Quote:

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Offseason Thread

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160 days until we open with a 4 game set in Tampa.

We can get through this together!

I loved Tucker's numbers in the minors but after seeing him play in the majors for a month, I don't think he can be penciled into anything at the MLB level.

Kyle Tucker - MLB - 2018

28 games
.141 (9-64)
.203 SLG (by comparison Verlander had a .200 SLG going 1-5 with a single on the season)
0 HR
4 RBI
1 SB

I would like to talk about Myles Straw because I would love to have a legit leadoff man with great speed batting in front of Altuve, Bregman, Correa, etc.

Yea I was more intrigued with straws speed
But don't give up on tucker
Another year of maturity and putting a little more good weight on and he could do some damage

Let's look at this position by position.

CATCHER
McCann has a club option that I doubt it picked up. (-17,000,000)
Maldonado is a UFA (-3,900,000)
Stassi is under team control. (+ a few hundred K, maybe)

Top Free Agents: Wilson Ramos (31), Yasmani Grandal (30), Matt Wieters (33), Jonathan Lucroy (33), & Devin Mesoraco (31). Ramos & Grandal would be nice hitting upgrades, but catchers don't age well. I would be cautious signing anyone to a long-term deal.

On the Farm: Garrett Stubbs (25) is an okay prospect. He's getting up there in age. His line in triple-A - .310 .382 .455 .836

We have almost 21 million coming off the books here. Stassi is just a guy. Stubbs will be given a shot, but ultimately I think we will need to sign or trade for someone. Maybe re-sign Maldonado to a 1-year deal and let him compete with Stubbs. If that works then we'll have some money to use at other need positions (see SP & DH).

FIRST BASE
Gurriel is 2 years left on his deal. (-2,000,000)

Top Free Agents: Joe Mauer (36), Steve Pearce (36), Chris Carter (32), Matt Adams.

On the Farm: Yordan Alvarez (21), Seth Beer (22) Yordan is a highly rated guy that should be given a shot to make the team in the spring and can be a nice backup 1st or potential DH spot if things fall his way. His double/triple-A line .293 .369 .534 .904. Beer was our first round pick in 2018. he's been flying up tearing it up in multiple levels of A ball. He should be in double and/or triple-A next year with 2020 as his target to crack big league team.

Yuli took a small step back from 2017, but it still a plus hitter (107 wRC+). I don't expect any changes here and good thing we're not looking to replace him because the free agent class is hot garbage. We save a little bit of money too with Yuli's contract going down 2 million this year and another 2 million next. Yordan and Seth are projected to be the future here and the timing seems to line up nicely. Kudos to Luhnow.

then something on the order of 3 years at $40 MM. Maybe that is do-able. Marwin would be the Astros splash FA signing this offseason

I love Marwin as a defender, so versatile. I don't like watching him as a hitter (while I know he's capable), because he takes so much time b/w pitches, steps out all the time, and routinely chases breaking pitches in the dirt.

He's an enigma to me, regarding whether I would want him to stay or let him go.