Note: No Rangers fans or other trolls please, it makes the place smell terrible and lowers the collective IQ by a remarkable percentage.
Well boys, let's wash the taste of 2024 right out of our mouths. Another division championship was nice, especially after that godawful start, but swept at home in 2 games in the Wild Card round is not what we're used to, and hopefully this team doesn't want that to happen again in 2025.
There's a lot of work that needs to be done this off-season to get back to the level of the elite in Major League Baseball.
Infield:
We're locked in at second base (Altuve), catcher (Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini), and shortstop (Pena).
Alex Bregman is a free agent, as we all know, and the rumors are flying from him returning to him going to the Damn Yankees.
We also really need a real first baseman who can do first baseman things in the field and at the plate. Last year we subsisted with Singleton for 119 games after Abreu drained 35 nights from our collective energy like some short of weak-ass hitting vampire. In 154 games, those two guys hit 15 home runs and drove in 49 RBI. That was in 468 at-bats. We could have gotten that plus 275 strikeouts from Joey Gallo.
Outfield:
All eyes on the front office in regards to Kyle Tucker, who will be a free agent at the end of the year. TED started the season blazing hot, then got hurt and missed 84 games, came back and was godawful in the playoffs for the fifth series in a row, going 0 for 7. He hasn't hit above .190 in a playoff series since the '22 wild card vs. Seattle. On the positive side, Yordan had a great year, playing in 147 games and hitting 35 bombs with a .308 average. Chas McCormick played terrible early on and got hurt, hitting just .211 in 94 games. Jake Meyers became the slightly better option in center, hitting .219 but having his best year as a pro with 13 HR, 61 RBI, and 11 SB. Still, not exactly decent.
Bench dudes
Mauricio Dubon is back in 2025. He still is very valuable all over the field but experienced the law of diminishing returns the more he played last year. He hit .269 with a .657 OPS. The rest of the bench is kind of a big dose of 'whatever'. Ben Gamel played well after we got him from the Mets, ditto Jason Heyward, but they both seem like rentals. No other bench player got more than 86 at-bats last year, and that was Trey Cabbage, who was only slightly more terrible than Chas, hitting .209. Cups of coffee were given to Pedro Leon (.100 in 20 at-bats), Zach Dezenzo (.242 in 19 games), Shay Whitcomb, who I have no memory of at all, and Grae Kessinger, who lived the impossible TexAgs Bingo Dream of not getting a hit the entire season.
Rotation
A strength to be sure, with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and Ronel Blanco all returning after going a combined 39-22 last year. Trade deadline windfall Yusei Kikuchi, who was 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA In 10 starts is a free agent who we all want to resign. Don't tell me you traded Yuey Guperfido in vain!
There's also Spencer Arighetti, who was alternately bad/unstoppable, including a memorable August when he had strikeout games of 12, 13, and 11. He's only 24 and has the hair that a Greek god would envy. Hopefully Luis Garcia comes back from his '23 Tommy John surgery and you can get some spot starts from JP France. I'm not going to talk about the other guy, other than the fact that his payroll slot is a glaring $17 million for 2025.
Bullpen
Josh Hader was excellent most of the time, although my God we worked his arm. 71 games, although somehow only 71 innings despite it seeming like lots of 2-inning work. It was his highest games pitched in his career. After Hader, well, hey, uh, sure. Taylor Scott had a breakout season at 32 (7-3, 2.23 ERA), Ryan Pressly had a freefall season, and Seth Martinez and Bryan Abreu were decent.
A Look at the Payroll
Well let's talk about the most painful part first: $19.5 million owed to Jose Abreu unless some other team signs him.
Your locked-in veterans are:
Jose Altuve $32.5m
Josh Hader $19.0m
Lance McCullers (fantastic) $17.7m
Yordan Alvarez $15.833m
Ryan Pressly (great) $14m
Cristian Javier ($10.4m, potentially due back 7/25)
Victor Caratini $6m
Key guys headed for arbitration barring a deal include
Framber Valdez, Kyle Tucker, Mauricio Dubon, Chas McCormick, Jeremy Pena, Jose Urquidy (hurt), Bryan Abreu, LuAce, Jake Meyers
Key guys who are still pre-arbitration and have to work for an agonizing $800,000 a year
Spencer Arighetti, Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown, Yainer Diaz, Jon Singleton
Top Things We're Wanting to See About
1) Bregman: He'll likely never be the guy he was in 2017-2019 again, and he only is truly great in August, but he is a tough guy, averaging 25 HR a year the last 3 years, high 700s OPS, and a good glove.
2) Tucker: Does he want to stay in Houston? Personally, I don't think he does. Or we could just sign Juan Soto and trade Tucker.
3) First Base: Find a decent middle range guy who can hit 20 HR and drive in 70 somewhere, promote a young guy and stick to him, or go after a big dog like Alonso? Most of the free agent first basemen are older dudes besides 30-year-old Alonso; Christian Walker is 34, Goldschmidt is 37, Rizzo is 35, etc. But please better than last year.
4) Bench help: The reason texasaggie2015 disappeared for a while last year is because he was secretly working out to give the team some bench help. Past Dubon, that bench is really barf city. Gamel is a free agent if there's any thought of resigning him. Also, fan favorite **** Hernandez, who I see our filter is still blocking out, bravo.
5) Everyone chip in to buy me season tickets: I'm riding an 8-game win streak in person stretching across 3 seasons including a road game. I just think it would be prudent.
Key dates
November 3: Gold Glove winners announced
November 4: Free agency opens for everyone
November 5-7: General managers meeting; White Sox relegated to AA
November 18: Rookie of the Year announced
November 19: Deadline to accept qualifying offers and Rule 5 draft Protection Deadline (Aka anniversary of the day the Astros protected James Mouton and let Bobby Abreu go) / Manager of the Year Announced
November 20: Cy Young Award announced
November 21: MVP award announced
November 22: Non-tender deadline
December 9-12: Winter Meetings; White Sox relegated to junior college competition
December 10: Amateur draft lottery for 2025
December 11: Rule 5 draft
January 9: Deadline to exchange arbitration figures if agreements not made
February 20: Spring training games begin
March 27: Regular season opener at home vs the NY Mets
Random crap from the Internet (believe at your own caution)
The Athletic's Jim Bowden predicts Bregman resigns for 7 years, $185m.
Hunter Brown has hired Lord Voldemort as his agent (free agent after 2028)
SI claiming the Orioles will try to trade for Framber if they can't resign Corbin Burnes
For now, enjoy the intrigue to come and let's keep our eyes on the prize.
Well boys, let's wash the taste of 2024 right out of our mouths. Another division championship was nice, especially after that godawful start, but swept at home in 2 games in the Wild Card round is not what we're used to, and hopefully this team doesn't want that to happen again in 2025.
There's a lot of work that needs to be done this off-season to get back to the level of the elite in Major League Baseball.
Infield:
We're locked in at second base (Altuve), catcher (Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini), and shortstop (Pena).
Alex Bregman is a free agent, as we all know, and the rumors are flying from him returning to him going to the Damn Yankees.
We also really need a real first baseman who can do first baseman things in the field and at the plate. Last year we subsisted with Singleton for 119 games after Abreu drained 35 nights from our collective energy like some short of weak-ass hitting vampire. In 154 games, those two guys hit 15 home runs and drove in 49 RBI. That was in 468 at-bats. We could have gotten that plus 275 strikeouts from Joey Gallo.
Outfield:
All eyes on the front office in regards to Kyle Tucker, who will be a free agent at the end of the year. TED started the season blazing hot, then got hurt and missed 84 games, came back and was godawful in the playoffs for the fifth series in a row, going 0 for 7. He hasn't hit above .190 in a playoff series since the '22 wild card vs. Seattle. On the positive side, Yordan had a great year, playing in 147 games and hitting 35 bombs with a .308 average. Chas McCormick played terrible early on and got hurt, hitting just .211 in 94 games. Jake Meyers became the slightly better option in center, hitting .219 but having his best year as a pro with 13 HR, 61 RBI, and 11 SB. Still, not exactly decent.
Bench dudes
Mauricio Dubon is back in 2025. He still is very valuable all over the field but experienced the law of diminishing returns the more he played last year. He hit .269 with a .657 OPS. The rest of the bench is kind of a big dose of 'whatever'. Ben Gamel played well after we got him from the Mets, ditto Jason Heyward, but they both seem like rentals. No other bench player got more than 86 at-bats last year, and that was Trey Cabbage, who was only slightly more terrible than Chas, hitting .209. Cups of coffee were given to Pedro Leon (.100 in 20 at-bats), Zach Dezenzo (.242 in 19 games), Shay Whitcomb, who I have no memory of at all, and Grae Kessinger, who lived the impossible TexAgs Bingo Dream of not getting a hit the entire season.
Rotation
A strength to be sure, with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and Ronel Blanco all returning after going a combined 39-22 last year. Trade deadline windfall Yusei Kikuchi, who was 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA In 10 starts is a free agent who we all want to resign. Don't tell me you traded Yuey Guperfido in vain!
There's also Spencer Arighetti, who was alternately bad/unstoppable, including a memorable August when he had strikeout games of 12, 13, and 11. He's only 24 and has the hair that a Greek god would envy. Hopefully Luis Garcia comes back from his '23 Tommy John surgery and you can get some spot starts from JP France. I'm not going to talk about the other guy, other than the fact that his payroll slot is a glaring $17 million for 2025.
Bullpen
Josh Hader was excellent most of the time, although my God we worked his arm. 71 games, although somehow only 71 innings despite it seeming like lots of 2-inning work. It was his highest games pitched in his career. After Hader, well, hey, uh, sure. Taylor Scott had a breakout season at 32 (7-3, 2.23 ERA), Ryan Pressly had a freefall season, and Seth Martinez and Bryan Abreu were decent.
A Look at the Payroll
Well let's talk about the most painful part first: $19.5 million owed to Jose Abreu unless some other team signs him.
Your locked-in veterans are:
Jose Altuve $32.5m
Josh Hader $19.0m
Lance McCullers (fantastic) $17.7m
Yordan Alvarez $15.833m
Ryan Pressly (great) $14m
Cristian Javier ($10.4m, potentially due back 7/25)
Victor Caratini $6m
Key guys headed for arbitration barring a deal include
Framber Valdez, Kyle Tucker, Mauricio Dubon, Chas McCormick, Jeremy Pena, Jose Urquidy (hurt), Bryan Abreu, LuAce, Jake Meyers
Key guys who are still pre-arbitration and have to work for an agonizing $800,000 a year
Spencer Arighetti, Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown, Yainer Diaz, Jon Singleton
Top Things We're Wanting to See About
1) Bregman: He'll likely never be the guy he was in 2017-2019 again, and he only is truly great in August, but he is a tough guy, averaging 25 HR a year the last 3 years, high 700s OPS, and a good glove.
2) Tucker: Does he want to stay in Houston? Personally, I don't think he does. Or we could just sign Juan Soto and trade Tucker.
3) First Base: Find a decent middle range guy who can hit 20 HR and drive in 70 somewhere, promote a young guy and stick to him, or go after a big dog like Alonso? Most of the free agent first basemen are older dudes besides 30-year-old Alonso; Christian Walker is 34, Goldschmidt is 37, Rizzo is 35, etc. But please better than last year.
4) Bench help: The reason texasaggie2015 disappeared for a while last year is because he was secretly working out to give the team some bench help. Past Dubon, that bench is really barf city. Gamel is a free agent if there's any thought of resigning him. Also, fan favorite **** Hernandez, who I see our filter is still blocking out, bravo.
5) Everyone chip in to buy me season tickets: I'm riding an 8-game win streak in person stretching across 3 seasons including a road game. I just think it would be prudent.
Key dates
November 3: Gold Glove winners announced
November 4: Free agency opens for everyone
November 5-7: General managers meeting; White Sox relegated to AA
November 18: Rookie of the Year announced
November 19: Deadline to accept qualifying offers and Rule 5 draft Protection Deadline (Aka anniversary of the day the Astros protected James Mouton and let Bobby Abreu go) / Manager of the Year Announced
November 20: Cy Young Award announced
November 21: MVP award announced
November 22: Non-tender deadline
December 9-12: Winter Meetings; White Sox relegated to junior college competition
December 10: Amateur draft lottery for 2025
December 11: Rule 5 draft
January 9: Deadline to exchange arbitration figures if agreements not made
February 20: Spring training games begin
March 27: Regular season opener at home vs the NY Mets
Random crap from the Internet (believe at your own caution)
The Athletic's Jim Bowden predicts Bregman resigns for 7 years, $185m.
Hunter Brown has hired Lord Voldemort as his agent (free agent after 2028)
SI claiming the Orioles will try to trade for Framber if they can't resign Corbin Burnes
For now, enjoy the intrigue to come and let's keep our eyes on the prize.
