I’ve seen some rumblings that the Astros might go after Dylan Cease, which if they did it would be by far the biggest FA contract they have ever signed. I would love if they signed him, I could see a Gerrit Cole type transformation with him working with the Astros coaches.
They need a frontline starter to replace Framber. If I was making the call, I think I would be looking at Ranger Suarez. Lefty, has really good numbers, 2 year younger than Framber(same age as Cease), cheaper than both, has great postseason numbers if you can get there.
Either guy would require a 6+ year deal, we haven’t seen them do that under Crane, so I remain skeptical
Maybe this will encourage Crane to stop with the offseason acquisition puppeteering and let the baseball quants continue to do that. So he can focus all of his energy making $$ that will be available for the splashy deadline deals he has to approve.
Who can use an aging, good fielding, low batting average first baseman with some power, and what kind of quality pitcher might they have in return? Also, how much of Walker’s contract is Crane willing to absorb?
In the same vein, at some point they’ve got to let Dana do what he was hired to do, which is build the farm back up through the draft. That’s hard to do when you’re sacrificing picks each year. The penalties for FA spending aren’t nearly as harsh as they used to be, but even losing a second-round pick hurts you up and down the draft under the bonus pool system. I would like to see Dana get a crack at the draft with a full complement of picks this time around (plus the bonus pick for Brown’s CY finish and for when Framber departs).