It feels almost treasonous to go back to the old Bopert era in the Chipalatta blog and complain about Jim Crane’s spending. Bopert was a friend of the blog, who a) Loved the Astros very much and b) Thought that the tiny amount Jim Crane was spending on payroll while the team was spiraling to the first 100 loss seasons in team history was all he would ever spend on the team.
Here we are nine playoff seasons and two Championship seasons away from those dark times. Crane has stepped up time after time to approve deals that pushed and even eased past the luxury tax boundaries that most teams avoid in order to pull in talent to the team.
But the way this off-season has started feels different as the team seems to be dipping their collective toes in the very shallow end of the pool.
Now they have not made huge moves to dump salary, but surely have been making moves that dump smaller amounts of salary.
- Chas McCormick possibly in line for $3.4 million in arbitration? Cut his butt.
- Ramon Urias potentially making $4.4 million in arbitration? Trash his a$$.
- Luis Garcia up for $2.2 million in arbitration? Waive the knave.
- Mauricio Dubon in line to make $5.8 million in arbitration? Trade him for somebody who is in line to make $1 million. Even if he is no where near equal talent.
- Jesus Sanchez might make $6.5 million and Jake Meyers might make $3.5 million in arbitration? Listen to offers.
That does not save the world in salary, but it is certainly looking like they are trying to hold on to every dime.
And then when they start opening the pocketbook, where do the Astros start?
- Signed pitcher Nate Pearson to a $1.35 million contract. He looks like the next candidate to pitch very well until his arm falls off.
- Dropped a huuuuge $2.6 million (huuuge is a relative term here) contract on Korean baseball veteran Ryan Weiss, who did nothing when he pitched on this side of the pond to make anyone give him $2.6 million.
- Made minor league agreements with pitchers Peter Lambert and Anthony Maldonado.
Other than some rumbles about interest in Brendan Donovan there has not been a lot of talk about who the Astros might pursue this off-season.
Are the Astros only pursuing blue light specials?
A quick note for any younger readers here. There used to be a pre-Big Box store named K-Mart. Kind of the poorer cousin of Wal-Mart. They used to have a thing called the blue light special. They would announce a blue light special over on Aisle 5. You would go over there and actually find a spinning blue light and like a gross of #2 pencils on sale for 1 cent per pencil and the such.
It is too early to know what if anything the team will actually spend on this off-season, especially with the claim they are aiming to stay under the luxury tax level. But it feels like they will not be opening that wallet very wide until they know if this team is actually good enough to contend in 2026.
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
17 responses to “Are Astros only interested in the Blue Light Specials?”
I think we’re looking at quantity over quality right now. Cease got 7 years, $210M. No other significant MLB signings have been made. Woodruff and Imanaga accepted the QOs from MIL and Chicago. After that, the guys who turned down QO were Suarez (PHI), Framber, Gallen (ARI), and Michael King (SD). Looking at the market, you’ve got Merril Kelly, Chris Bassitt, Adrian Houser, Justin Verlander, Nick Martinez, Lucas Giolito, Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin, Zack Littell, Michael Lorenzen, Michael Soroka, Griffin Canning, Aaron Civale, Jose Quintana (!?! he’s only 37?), Martin Perez, Dustin May, Chris Paddock, Max Scherzer, Cal Quantrill, Ben Lively, Charlie Morton, German Marquez, Elliot Tolliver, Miles Mikolas, Paul Blackburn, Tyler Anderson, Marcus Stroman, and Tomoyuki Sugano out there as starting pitchers who managed to post a positive WAR in 2025. If we’re willing to go negative, well, Franki Montas, Jose Urquidy, Spencer Turnbull, Jose Urena, Mike Clevinger, Wade Miley, Walker Buehler, and Andrew Heaney are available as well. There are some other guys who are injured and will miss the season like Luis Garcia and Zach Eflin who can be counted out. Now, look at that list and realize that I made up one name who is actually a Spider-Man villain and only 3 pitchers from the list are under the age of 30.
We can’t go out and trade for Tarik Skubal. I don’t think we have the pieces to build a viable postseason rotation in our system. To me that says we’re going to cobble together a group they hope can get them to July and then try to acquire someone to shore it up if the team is in contention. I think Free Agency will be more similar to the Black Friday sales where a store doubles the price on a sticker so they can advertise a 50% deal which fools people into paying more for the item than it would have cost the day before Thanksgiving than any blue light specials.
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Devin, I’m glad you included Urquidy. I want him back too. We picked up Nico Z. last night from the Cubs organization, the kid with the mysterious injury that had him sit all of 2025, who looked great in 2024, but that was A+ ball. If we had a 50 man roster, Dana would probably be close to filling it by now.
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I think that for the next couple of years we’re going to have to bite the bullet. It’s pretty obvious that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner with these big contract signings, almost 60% of the payroll is taken up by 7 players. Yes we paid Altuve and Alvarez but we’re stuck with 20MM for Walker, 17.7 for LMJ, 21.5 for Correra (net), 19 for Hader, and 21.4 for Javier. We’ll get rid of LMJ’s money next year, but we have Walker and Javier through 2027. (Thank you Capt Obvious) (sarcasm font here).
Doesn’t look like there are too many Blue Light Specials out there so we may be looking to shop at Dollar General/Dollar Tree or your local Thrift store. We seem to have pretty good luck with finding bargains at the Pitching Store.com but can’t get a decent return at the Hitters Outlet mall.
Oh well, Dana will just have to keep looking for filling his Christmas wish list and hopes he doesn’t bring home any defective merchandise. Be sure to check out the “no returns policy’” on those purchases as the saying goes, “caveat emptor”.
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Z, I’m getting old. A lot of us are getting old and can’t wait forever. But we had a heck of a good time watching our guys over the past decade. And you’re being rational. Tonight some well known writer, whose name escapes me right now, is suggesting that we’re hot on Ranger Suarez’ trail. I sure like his grit and big game pitching and he really does a good job of holding guys at first, but I sure doubt Boss Crane is going to jump in on Ranger unless he also signs Hunter for 10 years too. Wouldn’t that sell some tickets?
Reality is likely much different though. I can’t complain about any of the guys that have been let go. For me, even Dubon leaving doesn’t bother me so much. I just don’t think the new hitting experts would have had much luck in changing his ways at the plate. And I’ve already forgotten the name of the guy Atlanta sent over. I don’t think he’ll be on the bench Opening Day.
If there is one guy I can guess who we might see yet again, it remains Justin Verlander, and that might hinge on Walker, or heaven forbid, Paredes getting traded. Right now, I think we might lose 90 games or win 90 games. Hopefully we’ll get a little more clarity in the coming weeks. At the same time, Dana might be hanging around in March like the vulture he is, looking for one year deals. Everything seems extra expensive this year.
Dan, hope you’re getting some small victories. Hang in there.
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Taylor Trammell and reliever Logan VanWey to Triple-A to clear two spots on the 40 man roster.
https://www.si.com/mlb/astros/onsi/news/astros-outright-veteran-outfielder-rookie-reliever-clear-40-man-spots
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We have gone out of town for a breath of fresh air – having a nice weekend with no drama – and that makes me feel much better today.
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Cedric Mullins got 7 million from the Rays. He has not done much in three years, plays strong D in center with a bad arm. So maybe that’s about Jakes value. I just don’t know what we might get for Jake, but if anything, we’d likely be trading Jake and at least one other guy for whatever we get.
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Good morning. I don’t know what the Astros will do this coming season, but at the very least, we’re got two relevant teams in the city. The Rockets keep scoring points in bunches and actually show some defense every now and then.
The Texans were 5-5 with Buffalo, Indy and Kansas City in front of them, and now sit 8-5, winning the last two on the road. I did not expect all three games to be wins. Defense! And there seems to be enough offense when it’s really needed.
I hope Dana Brown goes on the offensive and surprises some people this week.
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Good morning. I don’t know what the Astros will do this coming season, but at the very least, we’re got two relevant teams in the city. The Rockets keep scoring points in bunches and actually show some defense every now and then.
The Texans were 5-5 with Buffalo, Indy and Kansas City in front of them, and now sit 8-5, winning the last two on the road. I did not expect all three games to be wins. Defense! And there seems to be enough offense when it’s really needed.
I hope Dana Brown goes on the offensive and surprises some people this week.
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I think the Astros are willing to do 1 mid-tier contract if it brings in a good starter – something in the 8-10M for 1 year kind of contract.
Outside of that I expect the usual smatterings of the type of lottery tickets like Hummel, Short, Rodgers, Guillorme, Alexander, Trammell, Walter, Sousa, Neris, VanWhey, just a bunch of guys on minimum salaries that they hope 1 or 2 hit and contribute. Blue light specials are fine for the 25th spot, but they are terrible way to try and be filling spots 18 through 24. Hard to contend that way.
If I was Brown I would be trying really hard to convince Crane that past decisions and bad drafts mean we need to live above the cap for another year or two. I would make a run at Polanco and Bassitt. I would try and work out an extension with Bryan Abreu right now. I would do whatever I need to trade Walker, including eating up to 20M of the 40M owed if I was getting a return. And yes, I would explore bringing back JV for a year as the 6th guy in a 6 man rotation to make 25 starts. Paredes at 1B, Polanco at 2B, Pena at SS, Correa at 3B, Yordan/Altuve LF/DH, Meyers in CF, and Cam/Sanchez in RF – and I’m signing Tauchmann to be my 5th OFer. Dezenzo is back as a corner IFer/LFer, and I guess Allen makes the roster as a guy that I would try to keep below 150 ABs and get 400+ innings in the field from. I’m fine with Sanchez as a back up to Diaz.
Brown, Bassitt, Javier, Arrighetti, Verlander and McCullers. If LMJ is still throwing 90 coming out of ST I’m not waiting for him to ruin my season, we can take that last spot to open competition between Blubaugh, Gordon, Alexander and France. I still remember the Astros surprising Shane Reynolds with walking papers out of ST. You’ve also got Weiss and Pearson and Ullola.
I would want some proven guys. But I suspect a full smattering of blue lights. It’s what we’ve seen already with Pearson, Zeglin, Weiss, Maldonado. They aren’t even on the blue light, they are down at the Dollar Tree. But you know, the Dr. Pepper from the Dollar Tree just doesn’t taste the same.
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Steven, like I said last week, this club could win or lose 90. Losing 90 is right in line with your second paragraph. I’m not thrilled right now, but I’m prepared. Yes! Let’s get Walker moved out. Sanchez really can’t go, especially if Dana is firm on sending Smith down if he can’t hit. Everything is expensive this year. Tariffs? Bassitt would be a deal at 10 million. I’d take Polanco, as I’ve come to realize too many other teams want Donovan. I’m almost resigned to Verlander being back, and it might be a better deal than some. But I hope when everything else shakes out, there are a couple million left for my old friend Jose Urquidy.
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I think it would take 2/30 to get Bassitt. But I would do that.
I would have no problem signing Urquidy for 1 yr 2M instead of Verlander. Either way its a chance. Might as well take the younger chance.
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I’m going to back off Polanco. I didn’t realize he spent most of the year at DH, and while he hit well, concerns about that knee kept him off the field. 3 years for a 33 year old that you don’t know can play in the field? Willi Castro sounds like a better fit because he comes without the injury history and doesn’t need to play everyday.
I have found the Astros pursuit of Shane Baz interesting. The rumor is Meyers and Anderson Brito for Baz. I would try and make that Ullola instead of Brito, but Tampa is pretty savvy. I think the deal would be a good one for us.
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Houston native Baz intrigues. He will provide innings and looks more the prototypical starter than Brito does. Is Brito really only 155 pounds? If we got a major league starter with further potential for Jake and Brito, I’d be okay with that. I’m wondering if TB would even go for that deal.
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Not really exciting me – Paredes is the guy I want them to keep
Red Sox Interested In Isaac Paredes; Astros Showing Interest In Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Mike Burrows – MLB Trade Rumors
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Paredes was my Astro MVP in his abbreviated first season with the Astros. His 9.3 million salary in 2026 is a bargain, if he’s healthy. Walker must have led the team in non competitive at bats. When was the last time we had a guy K 177 times? But we do need pitching. Lot’s of pressure on Dana Brown. He can’t afford a miss.
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Don’t ask Google because it will tell you that can’t be figured out, but I looked it up and the answer is:
2013: Chris Carter 2012 in 585 PA
2014: Chris Carter 182 in 572 PA
2016: George Springer 178 in 744 PA
2025: Christian Walker 177 in 640 PA
Dishonorable mention goes to Jason Castro striking out 123 times in 376 PA in 2016.
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