Garneau was a big disappointment for me last year. He’s never been much of a hitter, but he had been an above-average defensive catcher. Last year he was terrible with both the bat and glove. Perhaps it was just an anomaly, but the backup catcher situation last year was not good. Castro is steady, if unspectacular.
Really excited about Castro. Man, our fortunes have changed since yesterday morning.
I had my hemlock margarita all ready to go after I read the report Brantley was joining Springer in Toronto. Glad I waited a bit.
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I guess Socrates gave you the recipe before he passed
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I tended bar at his parties.
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An article for The Athletic subscribers:
From the article:
Only three teams — the Yankees, Astros and Cubs — were charged the competitive balance tax for 2020, according to people with knowledge of the situation. All three teams hope to avoid it in 2021.
As I understand it the consequences to the Astros of being a second time violator (in consecutive years) is:
- The tax rate on any payroll overage in excess of the $210MM threshold is increased to 30% from 20%
- The compensation pick for losing a free agent drops from after the 2nd round to after the 4th round (actually this particular penalty applies to 1st time as well as 2nd time violators). So unlike when the Astros lost Gerrit Cole in free agency and netted a draft pick at the end of the 2nd round, the impending (presumed) loss of Carlos Correa will garner only a pick at the end of the 4th round in the 2022 draft. Which is also why the Astros will receive only a pick at the end of the 4th round in the 2021 draft for losing Springer this year.
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FWIW (which is very fucking little), the Comical writer identifies the same 3 bubble guys as I did (Jones, Castellanos, Perez) in his writeup about the Castro signing.
I’m actually starting to warm up to the idea of trading for Kiermaier.
If I understand the rules, eventhough is is owed 11.7 mil and 12.2 mil the next 2 years, only 8.9 each counts towards the luxury tax.
I bet a package of C.Perez, Castellanos, and Stubbs could get him.
Maybe Tampa Bay would pay a little salary for that return?
And then the roster is back to 40 and we have a starting CF.
For what it is worth, new update on MLB Trade Rumors quotes Correa as basically saying he loves Houston and wants to stay. He hopes management sees it that same way. He doesn’t seem mad or upset about the arbitration as he said he understands the business side of the sport and you can’t get your feelings hurt. I’m sure it’ll come down to money, but hopefully the two sides can make this work.
So let’s not buck the long-standing TZ tradition (man has it really been over 20 years for using this?).
Anyhoo…Cabrera’d.
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$197MM with the Castro signing. Spotrac also has a $10MM estimate included for Correa. So if he wins his arb case that puts it at $200MM. If the Astros truly intend to not go above the CBT threshold and also leave a little cushion there to add players at the trade deadline, then any CF signing and another reliever almost has to be lower tier players (forget JBJ and Brad Hand).
I think Cabrera live Houston, too. But then Walt noticed that too.
He has two homes there.
I don’t like Kiermaier for the following reasons:
He cost too much and if you acquire him you’re committing to him for 2 years.
He doesn’t bring much to the plate, at the plate.
Going back to the beginning of his career, he’s never been able to stay on the field.
There’s been a few around here that have thrown out the question: “Why not Marisnick?” I’m in this camp. Other than being right handed, he seems like a cheaper option that the team would probably only have to make a one year agreement to, plus he’s a little younger.
I’m not saying Marisnick is the answer in CF but I would rather see him there versus Kiermaier.
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Kevin Pillar might be fit in CF price wise.
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I think Straw is your OD center fielder. Any $ they spend from here will be bullpen depth.
Added Nivaldo Rodriguez to the list of bubble players. And Roster Resource is wrong as Cionel Perez does in fact have an option remaining.
Do we know whether Joe Smith is going to play this season? The Astros seem to be planning on it, but I haven’t seen any confirmation on his part.
Yes.
The reason he sat out is no longer relevant.
No surprises here…