Astros’ off-season multiple choice

Just for fun, or maybe it is for torture, the assignment today is to look at some Astro situations and some potential results and pick which one you like.

JV – Justin Verlander is a free agent. Justin Verlander is about to turn 42 years old; He just came off a season of injury and then pitched poorly when he tried to return late in the season. In 2025 do you think he:

  1. Will have one last Indian Summer in his career and flash back to 2022 numbers –  18-4, 1.75 ERA?
  2. Will be a dependable 2-3 man in the rotation – 14-8, 3.50 ERA?
  3. Will repeat his mostly ugly 2024 – 5-6, 5.48 ERA?
  4. Will do his best to copy Jose Abreu and fall off the planet – 2-7 7.52 ERA?

AB – The rumor is that Alex Bregman’s agent is asking for Manny Machado money (11 years / $350 Million). The rumor is that the Astros offered him 6 years / $156 million. The multiple choice question to you is – Alex Bregman will:

  1. Sign an insane 10 year / $325 million contract
  2. Sign a more likely 7 year / $210 million contract
  3. Back and forth with the Astros and end up at 7 years / $180 million
  4. Sit on the shelf while all the money dries up, fire Boras as his agent and end up signing for 1 year / $40 million and trying again next year.

KT / FV – Both Framber Valdez and Kyle Tucker will enter 2025 knowing they will be free agents at the end of the year (unless something else happens). You think that:

  1. Both Framber and Kyle take their arbitration money, play out their contracts in 2025 and play elsewhere in 2026.
  2. ____ will sign an extension for _____ and the other will follow point A.
  3. ____ will get traded for prospects and the other will follow point A.
  4. Some other thing will happen

1B – They say if you have two QBs you have no QB. Now if you have nine first basemen…..I don’t know what you say. But for 2025, at first base the Astros will…

  1. Stick with Jon Singleton plus a platoon of some of those eight other 1Bs from 2024.
  2. Take the money they save from not signing Alex Bregman and pick up a solid 1B from the free-agent market.
  3. Look at what Zach Dezenzo is doing in the Winter League and give him a shot at the starting job.
  4. Pull a Biggio and move Yainer Diaz out from behind the plate to save his knees and maximize his hitting.

OF – Last Spring Training the Astros announced that Chas McCormick would play left field when Yordan Alvarez was the Designated Hitter and Jake Meyers would be in center those days. Then when Yordan played left field, Chas would move to center. Chas was hurt and then when he returned the solid hitter from 2022 and 2023 had disappeared. Jake was hot early and then fell off swiftly. This year the Astros will:

  1. Showcase the two OFs for a trade before the season.
  2. Feature one of them with an idea towards a mid-season trade
  3. Take the money they don’t spend on Bregman and sign a free agent OF.
  4. Give Jacob Melton and/or Pedro Leon a shot at a starting outfield spot.
  5. Other….

DB – Dana Brown is faced with possibly the most challenging offseason and season for the front office since the bad old days. He has problems at first base and the outfield. He likely has a Grand Canyon hole at third base. He does not know who will be back from injury in the rotation. He is probably a couple of arms short in the bullpen. He also has a fan base with high expectations. Dana Brown will:

  1. Overcome all challenges, helping to build a World Championship team and win executive of the year.
  2. Have more success than failures and have a team that wins the division and peters out in the playoffs.
  3. Have more failures than successes and have a team that is above .500 but misses the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
  4. Watch in horror as every move he makes crashes and burns, the team falls to last place below the Las Vegas/Sacramento A’s and he follows James Click into the sunset.

There you go. Answer these or even come up with your own multiple-choice questions.

Please, everyone, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Be thankful for living in the greatest country the world has ever seen.

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17 responses to “Astros’ off-season multiple choice”

  2. JV. E. None of the above. He’ll show flashes, but will have an injury at some point and really be more a 5th starter.

    AB. B. That’s closest. But Bregman will not be back.

    AT/FV. A. Outside chance Framber signs at some point, but I think Tucker flat out wants out.

    1B. A. C. I think we’ll get outbid for the guy from the snakes. So I think we’ll see more of what we saw last year. Cavatini is better at first than Diaz, so while I see Yanier playing there, I think he’s still our primary catcher.

    OF. C, essentially. We’ll get a lefty bat for the outfield. Maybe we’ll trade Pressly to the Jays and Joey Lops will come back. That’s unlikely, but I still think the guy is going to figure out the game. Chas has hit much better than Jake except for his terrible season in 2024. Melton has to hit AAA ball before playing the OF here. Leon might see time again, even before Melton.

    DB. I feel bad for Dana Brown. I think he’s still a puppet. And he also talks too much. But I don’t know if he’ll ever get a chance to build his own club.

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  3. Happy turkey day for everyone. I’ve been smoking two all day. 1. KtFv: Trade Tucker now for prospects as the Astros will not pay his price. 2. AB: C- but give a time limit and if refused ,move on. 1B: Dezenzoor Diaz, if he can learn the position. JV: Will most likely be B in my opinion. That said, I would prefer the Stros move on to younger players . OF: Give Melton a shot. He’s surely going to be at least as serviceable as Meyers and McCormick. My two cents

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    • LL: Never smoked a Turkey before. I know guys who used to smoke Camels but never tried one. (Thought their meat was a little bit too tough). Rode one in Egypt on a tour of the pyramids. OK, that was a bad joke but I but the birds are pretty tasty.

      As for my answers:

      JV – C, AB – B, KT/FV – D (It all depends where we are at the trade deadline), 1B – C but one never knows, OF – D but another scenario could easily happen too, DB – B more than likely but C wouldn’t surprise me either.

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  4. JV – Will be a dependable 2-3 man in the rotation – 14-8, 3.50 ERA?

    AB – Sign an insane 10 year / $325 million contract

    KT/FV – Valdez will get traded for prospects and Tucker will leave.

    1B – Take the money they save from not signing Alex Bregman and pick up a solid 1B from the free-agent market.

    OF – Feature one of them with an idea towards a mid-season trade

    DB – Have more success than failures and have a team that wins the division and peters out in the playoffs.

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  5. Happy Turkey Day all!

    I think the way NCAA football and the MLB offseason are going have me feeling a bit pessimistic for the future. In regards to DB, part of me is wondering if it matters what he does. I’m at the point where I don’t want him to resign Bregman or extend Framber/Tucker because it keeps us in the situation where we can’t improve the team because the budget is too tight or we’re over the cap. We need our farm system to produce some elite prospects. He’s going to have to hit on the draft and in IFA signings.

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  6. I would assume JV will pitch well enough to be the 3.50 ERA guy in B, but might not pitch OFTEN enough to be 14-8. I would take that chance though as long as its a one year deal.

    On Bregman, I think someone out there probably makes the 210M dollar mistake and it won’t be Houston. I don’t know if I’m just projecting my hope into that one.

    I don’t know. If you trade them now, or even during the season, their impending free agency probably means you are taking back B level prospects and hoping a lottery ticket comes through, or you can let them play it out and try and win in 2025. Worry about 2026 in the offseason. I wouldn’t blame anyone for trading them as the farm system is a wreck that needs to some shortcuts to catch it back up – it will be years before the rebuild it through conventional means. I just think you would have gotten more from a trade of both of them, at least 1 surer shot from each trade, this time last year.

    I think we will see a platoon of Singleton and Dezenzo. I’m fine with that because Dezenzo comes with a little positional flexibility at 3B and LF as well. In a vacuum I probably don’t want Singleton on my roster, he is not a good bat to ball guy, he plays below average defense and can only play 1 position, his baserunning isn’t as bad as you might think given his body type but not as bad as you might think is still bad. But he does kind of help this lineup by being a guy that at least forces pitches and takes walks.

    When it comes to the OF I would ask if anyone really checked the help wanted ads for outfielders. It’s fairly deep in teams that need help and fairly thin in players available. That combo = expensive. Real help, and I mean write em and forget em guys, are way out of our price range. This is why Meyers was offered arbitration despite clearly demonstrating he is not a major league hitter. I anticipate both Meyers and McCormick will be in CF and LF on opening day.

    The Astros will win the AL West again if you asked me to project this far out. As bad as we an be offensively, Seattle is even worse. Altuve, Alvarez and Tucker are all better than even Seattles best offensive player, and Diaz and Pena are probably better than Seattles 2nd or 3rd best offensive player. We still have a rotation that will be in the top 5 in baseball but it’s got no more wiggle room for any more Tommy Johns. You lose Altuve, Alvarez, Tucker or Diaz for any significant period it’s going to be ugly. If you can get there, and avoid the first round, anything can happen.

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  7. JV. I would choose B because I like him in an Astros uniform performing admirably for a decent price.

    AB. I like choice C because I have always wanted him to stay at an affordable contract.

    KT/FV I am going with D. Trade them both because they won’t resign. They have never given the fandom a reason to think they would accept an extension from Houston.

    1B. I go with C and give Dezenzo the job and keep cheap Singleton to back him up, at least for a year.

    OF. Use the KT/FV trades and the money saved to take care of the OF for the next five years or so.

    DB. I always pull for the Astros, so I go with A and hope he works us back to a big winner.

    Happy Holidays everyone!

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  9. Dodgers give utility man Tommy Edman a 5 year 75 million deal. The guy is versatile, but he’s got a lifetime OPS+ of 100.

    They don’t care how much they spend.

    Soto next?

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  11. I sense that the Astros will do little to nothing until the deal with Alex is settled. The makeup of this team for 2025 and beyond is being played out on Boras’s territory right now.

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  12. JV-Between B and C, but not in Houston. AB-C if back with Houston at all, KT / FV  both get traded if the wheels come off. OF-E. Trade McCormick, trade Pressly to the Dbacks for Gurriel. DB A, B at the worst. The rotation should be solid. Aquire some minor WAR production for LF and 1B and avoid major injuries and we have a shot.

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  13. Our Rockets are playing a very watchable brand of ball right now.

    Our Texans are not. They’ve got a lot of problems, some embarrassing. And they need leadership.

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