50PoundHead (02-11-2018)
Again, Lester, Quintana and Zobrist will be gone by that time. That's over 50 million in payroll space freed up. They don't have to resign any core players until after 2020 at the earliest I believe, and that's Rizzo if he's still playing well enough . And they can backload contracts to accommodate the final years of Darvish and Heyward.
They are fine financially.
Freshmaker (02-11-2018)
Yeah I don’t believe the Stros would be interested in Remo if they felt good about Gattis /Mac combo. I am fine with what we have.
Coppy
Maybe a few years ago. This is far from a fact at this point in time and considering we aren't winning a world series in 2018 that move is absolutely pointless. They just signed Suzuki because they obviously think he can help the team win. There is basically a 0% chance that any discussions involving Mac are happening right now for 2018.
Natural Immunity Croc
IDK, if you look at their team the young core is all generally under control for 4 more years (or more). Bryant and Russell are both Boras guys so they will likely continue to go the arby route. Baez and Schwarber might be extended or could go the arby route. One, maybe two of those guys will get traded at some point. My guess would be Baez or Russell and Schwarber gets traded. If they get controllable young talent with those guys then they are likely OK. They've got Contreras, Happ and Almora and have signed Rizzo and Quintana (courtesy of the WS) to nice extensions.
Lester comes off the books in 20 or 21 depending on the option which makes Darvish's 21, 22, 23 seasons less risky from a payroll limitation standpoint. Zobrist is gone after 19 and Chatwood after 20. Morrow after 19 or 20. Quintana after 18, 19 or 20 depending on options (probably 20). Cishek 19, Strop 18 or 19. They've got Hendricks under 3 more years of control if they want it.
Their biggest glaring mistake has been the Heyward mistake (which I said was a horrible contract from the beginning). Unless he opts out, and he won't, they are on the hook for him through 2023 at about $22M per, then they get the joy of paying him his bonus in $5M installments from 2024-27. If anything hurts the Cubs run, it likely won't be the FA contracts they've given pitching but the horrible contract they gave a mediocre offensive RF whose stock in trade was all world defense and base running.
What they should do is trade Schwarber and Baez for some good young minor league talent that will refill their farm and then be diligent about not raiding the farm over the next 2-3 years. They should also go big on the international FA market while they can.
The biggest thing about their SP is unless Quintana steps up to become a dominant ACE, then they don't match up well with the Dodgers or Nats (or even Arizona right now).
Salary is definatley key here. The Yankees are paying 5.5 million of Mac's salary. How much would the Astros pitch in for it to be worth it for either side?
Come on. Do we really expect Suzuki to repeat his 2017 year? From 2012-2016 he had a 656 OPS. I'd bet anthing that's the type of offensive production we would get from Suzuki in 2018. Suzuki is also a worse pitch framer than Mac. Mac isn't the player he once was but he's still a solid backup and would be much better than Suzuk on this team. You are right that in the end it doesn't matter who the backup catcher is
jpx7 (02-12-2018)
how much value do baez and schwarber have right now tho? baez has mostly been a lot of hype and a good WS, but he's about a 2-2.5 win player it seems. he could still improve of course, but his approach is atrocious. schwarber is coming off a rough season. it doesn't seem he's actually awful in the OF, but maybe he is. he should prob just be a DH somewhere. i think his value will rebound.
thank god the braves aren't on the hook for heyward at $20M+ per year. what a colossal mistake that would have been.
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