He also won’t get to feast on the AL West bottom-feeders and although the Marlins and Nats aren’t great the Phillies and Braves are both stacked.
He also likely is facing better teams in the NL as a lot of talent has gravitated to that league (we’ll see if the trend continues this winter).
Finally, we all know how the NY press treats failure…yes the Yankees are worse but it’s still New York.
From Ken Rosenthal this am in the Athletic:
Speaking of the Astros, they are eyeing three left-handed hitting outfielders — Andrew Benintendi, Michael Brantley and Michael Conforto.
All three ended the season in various forms of disrepair. Benintendi, 28, suffered a fractured hamate bone in his right hand on Sept. 2. Brantley, 35, did not play after June 26 and had surgery on his right shoulder on Aug. 12. Conforto, 29, suffered an injury to his right shoulder in January, underwent surgery in April and did not play at all last season.
Also, Vasquez is anticipated to sign for three years and probably is not destined for co-catching with Maldy
I love the idea of having Vazquez back – and DH/emergency-catcher might be a good role.
Byt maybe he was saying that Vazquez would sign elsewhere for three years as a full-time catcher?
That’s the way I read it.
Unless he’s changed his mind, Vazquez has already said publicly that he’s signing with a team where he is going to be the starter. He was never really coming back here unless we offer him more money than he can turn down. That probably isn’t happening.
I hadn’t seen those comments but that doesn’t surprise me.
MLB site has the Astros interested in a trade for Sean Murphy. The A’s are apparently shopping him and the Astros are apparently one of the teams interested.
I would love to have Murphy, but I figured the A’s wouldn’t want to send him to a division rival. But then, it’s the A’s, and I don’t know where they think they are in the competition pecking order going forward. They pretty much wrote off 2022 before it started.
If they trade for a catcher I wonder if Korey Lee will be included in the package. They obviously don’t see him in their near future.
Count me in the pro Murphy camp
Unfortunately the prospect/young player cost may be too much. I wonder if Oakland would require a bit more from the Astros to deal him within the division.
One of the obstacles I see is that in any trade for a starting catcher with multiple years of control, Korey Lee would be one of the biggest pieces the Astros would expect to include and Oakland isn’t likely to want a catcher
I’m not at all sold on Lee, and if he could be used to secure another piece, I’d trade him in a heartbeat. Click had me on speed-dial, but now that he’s gone they may not be listening to me anymore.
This is quite a quote from Gary Sanchez’s agent:
“The most important aspect of the 2022 season was that at the end of the season Gary was able to finally and completely shake off the emotional baggage he had acquired during his previous two seasons with the Yankees,” Marquez said. “Whoever gets Gary this offseason will benefit from the rebirth of the Kraken.”
The most relevant question with any Houston/Oakland deal is who currently has Ged Lowrie?
He’d need eight arms to be even average at stopping pitches.
Looks to me like they’re not planning on competing at least until they move to Vegas.
He’s replaced you with Bagwell.
Only his moving company knows for sure.
Oakland has prospect catchers already, not sure Lee does anything for them
I’m pretty sure any deal for Murphy would have to include Brown.
Ah yes! The Candace Bergen rule.