Would the Astros have ever paid him though?
DAS was there on the right day apparently. Luby’s is always good. Been awhile. Everything everywhere is up so high in cost.
No, but he paid 4 seasons with the Tigers before he hit free agency. He wasn’t a free agent until 2018. Think about this: if J D isn’t released, the Astros likely never trade for Gomez and Friers. And maybe Josh Hader is the Astros bullpen.
Luhnow said “miss” wrt Laureano, I didn’t care at the time but the GM said it later, not me. He said as much about JD, just didn’t work out for the Stros, and he regretted that one too.
Laureano has turned into a perfectly serviceable player. But he had no future with the Astros, and certainly not the kind of player you regret letting go.
Luhnow did indeed express regret regards Laureano…
“I don’t think we quite had the defense rated as well as its played in the big leagues,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said Friday. “That was an underassessment on our part.”
“We had a feeling (Laureano) was going to be a pretty good big league player, but he’s gotten off to a faster start in his career than we thought,” Luhnow said.
“So, yeah, he’s one that I’d love to have back.”
And you would be hard-pressed to find many 16th round draft picks who accumulated over 10 WAR in the first 5 years of their career. Seems way more than serviceable.
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Where he was drafted is immaterial. He either produces or he doesn’t. But my point is, who would he have replaced? Springer? Reddick? Brantley? I’m not saying Laureano can’t play, I’m saying he just didn’t have a place on this team at the time. Luhnow made a decision to go with other guys, a decision I don’t think you can say was regrettable. I just wouldn’t describe it as a “miss”. Kenny Lofton for Ed Taubensee was a miss. Laureano was just collateral damage to having a pretty good stockpile of players. Martinez, you’d like to have that one back. Laureano? I’m kinda glad it went the way it did.
Brantley wasn’t with the Astros at that time.
Luhnow said otherwise. I’m more inclined to go with what he said.
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He came in 2019, the year after Laureano came up with the A’s. But it’s fair to say Luhnow filled one of the outfield positions that would have otherwise gone to Laureano with Brantley.
This. Or maybe they thought it wouldn’t last?
I think Luhnow’s regret was that he didn’t get more value in return for Laureano.
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But you said he didn’t have a place on the team “at the time”.
Based on his performance in Corpus in 2017, he probably didn’t.
Let’s re-focus the discussion. This statement was made…
That’s as non-controversial a statement that can be made on this platform. There are verifiable statements from Luhnow where he stated as such.
If people put want to push back on that, continue to dig your hole.
He made changes in his swing during the prior offseason, but Luhnow saw nothing in ST and cut him loose too early. As others have said, Luhnow acknowledged his huge mistake.
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Martinez, yes, you’d like to have that one back.
But looking at the team 2017-2019…you say “I wish we’d have had Laureano instead of ______” Fill in the blank.
Laureano > Derrick Fisher
He would have been a great extra outfielder.
The A’s got the better end of that trade.
So the argument is now down to “Laureano was a huge miss because he was better than Derek Fisher as the 25th man off the bench”. My point exactly.
If Luhnow wants to beat himself up over not making a spot for Laureano, that’s his perogative. I’ll pat him on the back for it.
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