Harry Dunne said:
Deluxe said:
As the Astros thread expert on Tucker vs. Realmuto, what are your thoughts post-WS?
Not asking in any sort of "trash talk" way. Genuinely curious.
I was thinking a lot about that during the series.
Obviously Tuckers future is brighter and from here forward you want Tucker all day long. The only way it was even a consideration to get in the DeLorean and make the trade is if we never win a title with Tucker…wondering if all of the very close calls in the WS might have gone a different way with Realmuto at catcher.
Now that we have won one with Tucker, its a moot point IMO.
Do you agree?
I think there's a long answer and short answer. The long answer depends on a number of assumed ancillary moves and outcomes related to the hypothetical JT acquisition. It's possible to make the case.
But I think the short answer is that we did the right thing by keeping Tucker.
With full benefit of hindsight, you can probably count on one hand the number of "win now" guys it would have been worth it to deal Ted for back in 2018. He's provided incredible value for his $600k salary the last three years. And we still control him for three more years of his prime. If you want to build a sustainable winner, that sort of production/cost ratio is critical.
Even though dealing Ted for JT was a no IMO, I think the better argument in favor of JT is that we should have looked more seriously into signing him as a FA after 2020. Granted, I don't think our outcomes the last two years would have been much different with him in the fold. We ran out of gas against the Braves in 21 and we had the best team in 22.