Not according to Murphy.
How about I come at this from a different angle?
Our pitching staff over the last 5-6 years has pitched a lot of innings, many of them intense as our playoff record during this time is a shining example of how well we’ve done. But, we have had a lot of injuries (and last year it caught up to us - Javier, Garcia, Urquidy, France & McCullers plus JV). Also, we have a workhorse in Framber who is in a contract year - 173 starts in total including playoffs over 6 years.
Combine this two young studs (Hunter & Spencer) - one who has to overcome the sophomore jinx - and we have a pitching staff that could go either way (more of the same or grow in a new direction). Throw in changes to bullpen (bye bye Neris, Graveman & Ryan Pressly) and it’s kind of looking at us square in the face.
For this season, we are going to need to win in different ways. Hence my belief we need to overload the batting order with at least one “brantley esque type hitter” and upgrade either McCormick or Meyers depending which one brings you more.
So, the one-run game analysis (all by itself) means very little year to year, but as anybody who watched every game from first pitch to the final out knows, last year we gave away games in some absurd ways at the end. One way to mask our outfield and to protect our pitchers from some of the previous problems is score a shitload of runs - we have that potential, but we are two bats at least away from that.
Hope we don’t wait until the deadline to solve it, because this year it seems chaos might change our plans for us before we get there.
Laureano signs with Baltimore, 1y/$4M. They can have him.
Astros announce they will retire #13
No pressure, Dana!
Grichuk to Arizona, 1y/$5M. Lower-tier outfield options becoming scarce.
Last two off the board are right handed bats. Dana wants a left handed bat.
Pretty good look at the Astros’ remaining outfield options, at least the ones available without going for a big splash.
Jesus Sanchez would be my top target. He still has some upside but probably would cost the most prospect wise to get. I wouldn’t mind Heyward coming back since he at the very least is a good OF. Outman would be interesting too because he has CF experience
At this point I’m fine with the club rolling in to ST and seeing what Trammel and a couple of the kids look like before making any moves (if those are the only options). I’m betting at least a couple of the FAgent options will still be available late into ST.
I read they resigned Ben Gamel but not sure of the source.
It was just reported on MLB Trade Rumors via Chandler Rome. It is a minor league deal.
In his ever so brief stint that he had with us last season, I liked what I saw.
Don’t know the details yet on what his major league salary would be if he makes the team, but he’s definitely going to be cheaper than Verdugo and Peralta. He’s not going to hit with as much power as those two, but he’ll probably hit for better average than Verdugo and he’s a better defender than both of them.
EDIT: Deal contains as $200K signing bonus and a non-guaranteed $1M dollar base major league salary. The salary becomes guaranteed if he breaks camp with the team.
Glad to have him back. He had an outsized impact in very limited time with the club.
Rome clarifies that it’s a major league deal for Gamel, $1M, but non-guaranteed until he makes the roster out of ST. Except he gets $200k up front as a signing bonus, so I guess that part is guaranteed. Either way, dirt cheap in baseball money. Glad he’s back.
I like Gamel.
Alonso goes back to the Mets
On a two-year deal, with an opt-out after the first.
They’re in the “don’t tell the kids, but go ahead and start looking for apartments” phase.
Bregman to the Cubs? I read that rumor today.
Last I heard the Cubs were not willing to go over 4 years, but were willing to pay a high AAV and give opt outs.
The Bellinger deal was the model they were using in their offer.
Also last I heard, Alex was not considering anything less than 6 years.
But who even knows anymore.
I have not heard any new rumors or anything today.