W said:
speaking of the Astros and free agency...
LMj is a free agent after the 2021 season.
so if the 2020 season is cancelled...he'll take the mound in his contract year...having not pitched since 2018.
hard to say what the market for LMj would look like. He's never started more than 22 games in a season
Yep. Some interesting implications of potentially not having a 2020 season.
In one way it could be positive for LMJ. The 2020 season was likely to be very restrictive for him in terms of innings and was likely going to have to make multiple IL stints. By next year he might be able to have a 150-200 inning season. But like you pointed out, it's kind of a lost opportunity for him to re-gain some of his live game sharpness before his free agent year.
One other macro Astros issue from not having a 2020 season is that we're going to have to make some tough decisions on extensions for LMJ, JV and Greinke after 2021. Guys like James, Framber, Abreu, Javier, Sneed, Urquidy and possibly even Whitley were going to be leaned on for meaningful innings this year and give us some good insight as to whether or not they'll be capable of nailing down a rotation spot in 2021 and beyond. Now we'll have to make decisions on extensions for LMJ, JV and Greinke with a bit less info on our potential reinforcements.
At the same time though, after watching what Tampa has pulled off the last few years, I trust Click's ability to scout talent and piece together innings in the long run.