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Astros 2024: Something from nothing

Examining the makeup of any contending (or non-contending) team’s roster often leads to interesting side stories. It is easy to be dazzled by the big names, the big free agent pickups, and the flashy trades and to ignore some of the under-the-radar moves that bring value to the team while not requiring high draft choices or many millions in contracts.

 

Today, let’s take a look at Astros who have contributed far beyond what one would expect based on their cost to the organization.

Starting Pitching

Framber Valdez – Back on March 19, 2015, the Astros signed Framber as an International free agent out of the Dominican for $10,000. It was a great day for the team as they also signed Cristian Javier, one of the heroes of the 2022 Championship run for the same amount. Valdez rose quickly, but struggled in a couple call-ups in 2018 and 2019. Starting in 2020, he became one of the Astro’s best starters, and his 14-6, 2.91 ERA in 2024 is matching his 2022 season as his best for the team.  

Ronel Blanco – The Astros signed Blanco out of a Dominican car wash (yes you are reading that right) for the piddle amount of $5000 back in 2016. He was ancient, for International signees, 22 years old at the time. He bounced along slowly up the organization, mostly as a reliever, but after a switch to a starter’s role and the addition of a killer changeup, he burst forth in a brilliant 2024 season. His 11-6 record, his 2.88 ERA, and especially his early season run, including a no-hitter, have been crucial to the Astro’s success this season.

Hunter Brown – Fifth round draft picks in 2019 out of such non-descript baseball non-powers as Wayne State are not supposed to be competing for the title of ace a handful of years later. The Astros did hand over a $325 K signing bonus to Brown, but that is a mini-hiccup to an organization that just spent more than $250 million in major league salaries in 2024. What did the Astros get for that small investment? A pitcher who in his last 25 starts has put up dominant stats 11-6 (which should be a lot more wins with better support) and a 2.93 ERA. Those are ace numbers.

Spencer Arrighetti – Back in 2021, the Astros spent a sixth-round draft choice and $147K on Arrighetti out of Ooh-la-la (OK, the University of Louisiana – Lafayette). While his 7-12, 4.72 ERA pales in comparison with Hunter Brown’s numbers – his ERA is 4.34 since a 7-run/ three-inning debut and he has given the team a solid 131 innings they could not have survived without this year.

Relief Pitching

Bryan Abreu—Back in 2013, the Astros invested $40,000 in signing a 16-year-old beanpole out of the Dominican Republic (again). After a couple of cups of coffee in 2019 and 2020 and poor numbers in 2021, Abreu busted out in 2022 and has been a primary cog in the Astros’ high-leverage situations for the last three seasons, going 9-5 with 8 saves and a 2.33 ERA in those three seasons.

Tayler Scott – Scott bounced around 10 organizations after being drafted in the 5th round of the 2011 draft by the Cubs. The 32 year old South African was then signed as a free agent this last off-season by the Astros. In exchange for making the MLB minimum ($790K – not a bad minimum huh?) Scott has given the Astros a fourth option out of the bullpen – putting up a strong 7-3 record and  2.13 ERA in 61 appearances to date.

Bryan King – The Cubs drafted King in the 30th round of the 2019 draft and after bopping around and only rising to the AA level, they released him after the 2022 season. The Astros picked the lefty up off waivers in December 2022 and, after a solid half-season at Sugar Land, brought him up to the big club in 2024. While making the major league minimum, (which I’m sure he loves) he has been a good option to pick up non-high leverage innings with a 1-0 record and 2.05 ERA in 23 appearances.

Kaleb Ort – The 32-year-old Ort had been with 7 organizations before the Astros picked him up off waivers at the end of May but had only pitched with three of them – the Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles. He had pitched poorly in three MLB stints with the Red Sox between 2021 and 2023. But….he has been great making the MLB minimum and pitching filler innings to a 1-1, 1.61 ERA tune in 18 appearances for the Astros.

Position Players

Jose Altuve – The Astros have never spent a better $15,000 than when they signed Altuve out of their Venezuela baseball academy back in 2007. Seventeen years later his career is on a potential Hall of Fame arc, and he has won batting titles, an MVP and been on 9 All Star teams.

Yordan Alvarez – They did not exactly bring him in for nothing, but the day the Astros traded serviceable reliever Josh Fields to the Dodgers for a young Cuban, who had yet to play in the Dodgers’ organization was one of the best in the Astros’ history. Since quickly rising through the minors and making his debut with a spectacular half-year run to the Rookie of the Year trophy in 2019, he has put up a 162-game average of .298 BA/ .390 OBP/ .974 OPS/ 42 HRs/ 121 RBIs.

Jon Singleton – Yeah, I know the Astros gave Singleton $10 million in return for very little in his smoke drenched early career, but for his Second Song – they got him for nothing. He had gone 8 seasons between major league experiences before a short show with the Brewers in 2023. After the Brewers released him, the Astros grabbed him, and after a good stint at AAA he came up to the big team for a cup of coffee in 2023. He made the team out of Spring Training in 2024 and although not great, has certainly been a lot better than Jose Abreu was. His slash is .239 BA/ .322 OBP/ .715 OPS while the AL league average this year is .240/.309/.707 – so he is an average AL position player for the league minimum.

Yainer Diaz – If you consider that Diaz was a throw-in to a trade where the Astros got their value out of Phil Maton coming for Myles Straw going – this was incredible value for not much spent. Diaz is already the best hitting catcher the Astros have ever had. Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you. I know they are using him at DH and 1B also, but in his two seasons with the Astros as a catcher only, he is slashing .311 BA/ .336 OBP/ .853 OPS with 25 HRs and 98 RBIs in about a season of at bats (547 ABs). There is nothing in their history that touches this kind of hitting for a catcher.

Mauricio Dubon – In mid-May 2022, the Astros traded prospect catcher Michael Papierski for Swiss Army Knife Dubon. Since then, Papierski has done very little in a couple short stints at the majors, while Dubon has established himself as an invaluable puzzle piece who can play every position except catcher and pitcher and win a Gold Glove.

There are other folks we could talk about here – Yusei Kikuchi for three prospects, the pickups off the scrap heap of Hector Neris, Ben Gamel and Jason Heyward, but you get the general idea. While the team is lucky to have first round draft picks like Kyle Tucker, Jeremy Pena and Alex Bregman and major free agent signees like Josh Hader, they have tremendous value in many areas that started with minimal or no investment by the club.

 

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26 responses to “Astros 2024: Something from nothing”

  1. Assuming the Astros do not have unlimited funds to spend on players like the LA or NY teams do, getting production from players with smaller contracts is a big factor in staying competitive.

    I know I have been critical of his managing, but Joe Espada has done a great job with our injury-riddled squad, and I am certain he does not get paid as much as many other well-established managers.

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  3. The Gurriels, Charlie Gonzalez, Mike Elias, Jeff Luhnow, Andrew Friedman the immortal Yadier Alvarez all had their roles to play in Yordan ending up an Astro. What a great story.

    Yainer is arguably as big a steal.

    Certainly without the predecessor’s international scouting department and investment in it we would be up the creek and no paddle. This team has so much bad money spent/still paying that it would have sunk us if there wasn’t a whole bunch of affordable players turning in great performances.

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  4. Gee, sounds like immigrants undercutting the wages of American citizens and taking their jobs so that rich white corporate billionaires can get richer to me.

    But that’s probably just me.

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  5. Thoughts

    • This was a pretty “mature” outing by Arrighetti as he had to battle constant traffic, but he did not allow the Padres to put the game out of reach. (True confessions I went to bed a little early because I thought 2 runs put the game out of reach).
    • That outfield assist by Heyward was gorgeous but unusual. The base hit to him was coming so hard that he did not get a chance to get behind the throw before it got to him, he had to grab it flat footed and then get moving towards home plate – but a laser.
    • They may need to give Tayler Scott a week off or something. He’s given up runs in 4 of his last 5 games and 6 of his last 10. And in that time, he has allowed 6 of 7 runners inherited to score.
    • Yainer has gone 0 for 5 and 0 for 4 in the last two games. Unusual for him who seems to get a hit almost every game.
    • The one positive last night – they did not have to use Abreu, Pressly or Hader – so they should be available the next couple games. But the team has to hit enough to get a lead.
    • Darvish reminded me of some of those early Ranger games against us where we just had no clue. I would rather remember him with the Dodgers in the 2017 WS.

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  7. Personally, I’ve been boycotting the National Felon League since the Adrian Peterson child beating incident. A 230 pound football player needing a stick to discipline a 4 year old child is outrageous enough. But when he doesn’t go to jail for it, it’s completely out of bounds. But I know there are some Texan fans in the house and I have a question.

    So were y’all really upset with this NBC broadcast? Or is this more Bravo Sierra from the Nuthin But Commies network? Inquiring minds want to know.

    https://www.boundingintosports.com/2024/09/nbc-taylor-swift-reference-bears-texans-game-fans-were-annoyed/

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  8. Hmmmm. They seem to have a lot of trouble telling the difference between a contusion and a fracture in Houston, it appears. Wassup with that? Why all the opacity?

    Do these guys all have Obamacare? I kbow it’s not the VA this time…!

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  10. A few observations:

    The Joneses (Nippy and Cleon) would like to give some shoe polish to Jose.

    Kessinger warms the bench for five days and when he gets into a game, of course the ball finds him.

    Gamel on the IL with Salazar up could mean more 1B or DH for Diaz, although Singleton has been hot lately.

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    • The broadcaster made the comment about Kessinger coming in cold and making that play and I was thinking there is a good chance that ball gets past Altuve if he wasn’t thrown out of the game. Maybe it was a karmic reaction to the false time violation called on Hader in the 8th or Machado’s nonsense throughout the game. I used to say I’d rather see any team other than LA win the West…but SD repeatedly makes me eat those words.

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  11. Quite the game last night. Especially the last 3 innings but we’ll take a win, especially in extra innings where we usually stink. Speaking of stink, how about the umpiring. Both teams were getting hosed last night. Our magic number is now 7 so keep it up guys. I don’t think we’ll catch Cleveland but the odds are good that we’ll win the West. In the 10th a key hit by Tucker, great play by Kessinger, and a gutsy performance by Neris told the tale. That one was worth staying up past 1 AM to watch.

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  12. Thoughts

    • If MLB can’t assign umps who know the strike zone could they at least assign umps who know the rules? They spent three minutes figuring out that Hader could step off the mound. They didn’t know that? By the time Hader finally got to pitch he throws one wild that Diaz can’t stop.
    • This was the craziest game of the year with more weird interaction than any other this season.
      • The ump calls a couple pitches strikes on Machado (they were wrong on one and right on the other) and Machado instead of getting a walk he launches a two run homer
      • In the ninth – Altuve hits a ball off his foot that rolls to the third baseman and is tossed over the first baseman. Altuve goes nuts and even takes his shoe and socks off to show where it hit his foot and gets tossed.
      • Kessinger runs for Altuve in the 10th as the phantom runner and scores the go ahead run. Bregman barely misses a double down the left field line that would have busted the game open.
      • In the bottom of the 10th after Neris moves the tying run to third with a duplicate wild pitch on his first pitch just like Hader. He then works it to two outs and a guy on first and third. Then he throws inside to Profar. Profar says he isn’t hit and the ump says he is. They go to New York for the review – New York must be in REM sleep as the ball obviously misses Profar. Profar a left hander is peeved that he can’t hit. Machado comes up and rips one up the middle. Kessinger makes a great play on a short hop shot and they end the game with a force at second base. Would Altuve have made it? Who knows.
    • The league needs to look hard at this game and explain what happened on a number of those plays. The umps came across as buffoons in this game.

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    • I feel very strongly that the pitch that “hit” Profar was above the plate. Given the NFL is now talking about vertical space we should extend it to MLB.

      Also, in case anyone went to bed early, TBS chose Jon Singleton as the Astros player to interview after the game.

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      • I would say that even though it was a bloop double, that Singleton fighting off that pitch and dropping it in led to those first two runs – otherwise we would have been dead

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    • Why? The millions keep rolling in as long as fans keep buying tickets, streaming packages, and team swag. As long as that gravy train keeps rolling along, why would they bother?

      HINT: They don’t care about you.

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    • Forgot to include the quoted passage to which I was referring. Meme War is keeping me very busy!

      “The league needs to look hard at this game and explain what happened on a number of those plays. The umps came across as buffoons in this game.”

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  14. Once again the offense was down right offensive. Felt sorry for Ort but his pitches just caught to much on the plate and his fastball had no movement. Padre’s batters were just sitting on a specific pitch and they got it. Time to root for the Yankees again. Framber pitched a great game but alas, no run support. Was Cease that good or were we that bad?

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  17. The Padres might be the healthiest, most talented club in MLB as we head towards the post season. Winning 1 of 3 in their place, while not ideal, was a realistic outcome.

    Our guy Ort. He’s not that good. That’s why he was available. But he’s given us some important innings over the past month or more, like so many others have contributed, one way or the other.

    We don’t hit very well. Yeah, we have a pretty good team BA, but there are many stats that make it clear we’re not very good at the plate, whether it be due to philosophy or simple execution. We can name names in November, because for now, these are the guys we’ll win of lose with in October.

    The real heroes are the starters. We essentially lost a rotation. The other guys have picked them up, over and over again.

    It’s almost bonus time. I did not see it happening, but this group is resilient if nothing else. I’m sure the Padres won’t take them for granted.

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  18. Thoughts

    • Yeah,I echo your thought Daveb – this Padre team is going to be a tough out in the playoffs – might finally win it all (I don’t think they have won it all – but I am getting old)
    • You can say I jinxed Ort – but I did not write that article about him. We know that sometimes these guys show up – are good for a bit but eventually find their level – but yes he has given us a lot of help last night not withstanding
    • Framber another very good outing – all you can ask
    • Not sure why Tucker sat out after getting the winning hit the night before – I assume they have him on a play so many days, DH so many days have a day off schedule
    • So, we have had to cheer for the Yanks and after today we next cheer for the Rangers – what kind of upside down world is this?
    • Need somebody to get hot and carry this offense – 2 or 3 or 4 would be good numbers of carriers too.
    • I hope the Angels are phoning it in and we decide to play good at home

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