That’s how I read it. Love Bags, but the Astros didn’t get in their current position with the likes of Bagwell. Crane’s front office hiring to date is basically perfect, so I do trust him, but at the very least the current situation is slightly unsettling.
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So, you “love Bags,” eh?
That damn outfield wall at Rogers Centre is one of the most convoluted in all of baseball.
Dealt to the Twins today for a pair of prospects.
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Good. Get busy Crane!
Strange. The Marlins were going to use him as a utility guy also. Is he shying away from that?
If I could talk to Crane for 15 seconds, I would tell him this: If you don’t sign Gurriel, there will come a time in the season when you will wish you had. And gladly at double the amount he is asking.
I think this is more about Yuli still hoping someone is willing to make him their everyday 1B. I have to believe the Astros would be fine deploying Yuli in 2023 the same way they did Aledmys Diaz in the past few seasons.
I thought you were going here:
“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.”
It’s hard to believe that someone won’t take a chance with Gurriel playing full time. He is one year removed from a batting title, as good at his position as anyone and he is a gem in the clubhouse.
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I agree. His bat speed certainly looked fine in the playoffs. He will be missed in the Houston clubhouse if he isn’t there.
It’s not as if they’re asking Yuli to be the 26th man. He’d be the primary fifth infielder and possibly a right handed DH on more than rare occasions. Diaz saw 300+ at bats last year. He’d be on the field plenty.
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Wonder if the knee injury at the end of the series is a factor which complicates the data of aging vet with declining bat speed and the pro-Yuli Swiss jack knife utility McGyver role which no one knows he’s accepted.
So many issues to sort through to make him a starter: age, position, health, durability, role.
I am hoping Crane et al are playing 5 dimensional chess with both the league and Gurriel - and he comes back, but accept this outcome may have already passed
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I am betting he is having a hard time letting go, which must affect Cubans as much as it does US players. See Mantle, Mickey.
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We have all agreed to pretend that Willie Mays was never a Met, and Hakeem was never a Raptor.
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Jackie Robinson made the right move when he was traded at the end: “Fuck the Giants. I retire.”
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I forgot about the injury. That’s probably the sticking point.
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For whom?