did Machete and Yainer depart on good terms?

I believe Yainer intentionally stole a base off him in his final season

In...what a disappointing season and to eke into the playoffs and go out with a whimper was just pitiful.

I'm still blaming this on my 9-month old who decided to arrive at the end of 2025 instead of 2026 like she was supposed to and ruined my streak of 2017 got married/won a world series and had our first girl in 2022 and won a world series...love her to death but I don't know if I can forgive her for this.

Red Sox fail to advance in the postseason for the seventh time in the last eight seasons pic.twitter.com/O6RkNJ2TWZ

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 1, 2026

They've got 4 World Series titles this century but this is rough

txags11 said:

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The more I thought about it the last week or so, I really want to see Paredes back in an Astros uniform...

I think we have to move Walker and Pena..I also listen to offers on Hunter Brown. I know it's crazy because when he's in ace form, he's dominant but he was too far from ace form too often this year. You can play Paredes at 1B and be great. I don't think you'll be able to move Imai because of the cost but if so you try to.

I think if you can build your lineup around Yordan, Paredes, Altuve, Cam, Correa and even Yainer that is a start.

You'd be looking at:

Altuve-2B
Alvarez-DH
Paredes-1B
Correa-3B
Smith-RF
Yainer-C

Maybe Loperfido can take the next step and become your CF though I don't envision that happening. The team has to find starting pitching and I think they have that with a few of the guys on the roster now, but they need more. We also have to go find quality bullpen arms. Lots to fix and I'm not sure if it's something you can fix in 1 offseason but the biggest move to be made is getting Bagwell far far away from the business and operations side.

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I think it's the way.

Move Walker, Pena, and Brown to help the farm and pitching. Then spend every cent you can on Seiya Suzuki to replace pena's production and finally fix the outfield offense. Then you probably have to settle for Allen and Spence at SS and CF. Any money left should be used to buy as many SP/RP arms as you think you can get something out of.

Pitching wise, it'll be a struggle, but I think you can find a rotation between Ullola, Blueballs, Petey, Wesneski, Javier, Imai, Burrows, Blanco, and Mayer.

With as ass as the division has been, this is a way to retool and still compete yet build up the farm.

Who would trade for Walker? Just because his contract is expiring? Or we think someone is willing to pay his 20 mill for 20 hrs and 80 rbi

Bring back Cora.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Relying on Lucas Spence to replicate his good weekend against Oakland is about a good idea as thinking ... I had to look up his name - Dylan Cole -was going to replicate his 4 HR, 11 RBI in 15 games barrage from the end of 2025. Trade, promote, whatever, but real OFers please. Guys who weren't street free agents last week

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With as many holes and financial constraints as we have, you cannot address everything perfectly. Adding someone like Suzuki gives you a top-3 production in the lineup from an OF spot. We haven't had that since Tucker. I think it would be beneficial to do that and settle on a defensive CFer rather than get 2 mediocre players in free agency.

heavens11 said:

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Ag4life80 said:

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Watch the Ryan Pressly interview on YouTube. Calls Machete the most underrated player on those teams. Sounds like a fantastic bench coach candidate

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Defensively he was great. While he would occasionally run into a grooved fastball or some such, he reset the bar on ineptitude as a hitter. I think he would be fantastic working with the pitchers and catchers on analysis and game planning

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Don't mistake physical ability (or inability) with the mental side of the game.

what's interesting...the Red Sox only ranked 12th in MLB payroll

Boston has cut back its spending

in fact the Red Sox haven't been in the top 10 payroll-wise since 2022

someone has to ask...

how much would George cost on a 1-year deal to be the 4th outfielder?

and occasional 3rd outfielder

I'm not sure there's a right or wrong way to go from here. I do think there is enough talent in areas that if you can hire an elite GM and staff that you could potentially put together another division winning team that is much better than the one we saw this season.

Saying that, if it's going to be micky mouse hires and Crane and Bagwell are still the ones in charge then we might as well trade Yordan and start loading up the farm and hopefully those two guys will be out of the picture by the time the farm guys grow up.

Farmer1906 said:

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Sher Thing said:

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Bring back Cora.

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Nah. He was a drunk *******. Blum might have to kick his ass again.

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Hang on what now?

Here

Wabs said:

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I know alot of people don't want to hear this, but if the decision is to go the rebuild & youth movement route, then we need to get the max amount for Yordan. His value is at an extreme high right now. He would draw the best package of young talent. Add in HB, Pena, Paredes and Hader and we should be able to get a great start. Of course we have to have the front office in place to make the right decisions. Is Crane willing to do that? Or is it going to be patch and repair?

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I'd like to see us keep Yordan but I get what you're saying.

I don't see us being able to put enough around him to protect him in the lineup and allow him to produce. We'd see what we did after the All Star break where everybody pitched around him. Maybe not intentionally walk but be much more OK with not coming near the zone with anything he could do damage with and just deal with him getting on base.

Farmer can check me on this, but 1.0 WAR is worth $8-$12 million. This equates to a $15-$20 million value for Walker, which is his salary. The Astros might be able to trade him without a cash kicker to a team with a 1B hole, but it would be a payroll dump (no return value). Pay down some of that, say $8 million next year, and you might squeeze out a High A or AA prospect with some upside.

The biggest hurdle to trading Walker might be that Crane made the deal in the first place.

ETA: A Gold Glove, 30-odd HR first baseman on an expiring contract in this era of offensive philosophy still has value.

Marvin said:

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Farmer can check me on this, but 1.0 WAR is worth $8-$12 million. This equates to a $15-$20 million value for Walker, which is his salary. The Astros might be able to trade him without a cash kicker to a team with a 1B hole, but it would be a payroll dump (no return value). Pay down some of that, say $8 million next year, and you might squeeze out a High A or AA prospect with some upside.

The biggest hurdle to trading Walker might be that Crane made the deal in the first place.

ETA: A Gold Glove, 30-odd HR first baseman on an expiring contract in this era of offensive philosophy still has value.

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Yup, he performed better in 26 than 25 and he only has 20 M left and not 40. It should be easier to move him this year than last. But teams aren't going to pay for what he did in 26. They're going to pay for what they project him in 27.

If you look at the value (bottom of the page) it shows Walker was worth 9.3 M last year and 12.7 M this year. ZIPS has him at 0.8 WAR next season, so maybe a 6 M valuation. We'd likely still have to kick in some money, but we can probably find someone willing, unlike last year.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Relying on Lucas Spence to replicate his good weekend against Oakland is about a good idea as thinking ... I had to look up his name - Dylan Cole -was going to replicate his 4 HR, 11 RBI in 15 games barrage from the end of 2025. Trade, promote, whatever, but real OFers please. Guys who weren't street free agents last week

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Yeah, I think Lucas Spence bought himself a lot of starts because of that miracle weekend in Sacramento. Good thing it didn't happen in June, we would've been riding him for games on end because "you remember that time in Sacramento!"