The Astros will non-tender first baseman/DH Chris Carter, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. Carter, who was a Super Two last year, was projected by MLBTR to earn $5.6MM.
We had heard yesterday that Houston would only tender Carter a contract if it felt he could be traded, and that obviously did not prove to be the case. The Astros will presumably rely upon Evan Gattis as its primary DH, with players like Jon Singleton and prospect A.J. Reed potentially factoring in at first, though some kind of outside addition can’t be ruled out.
Carter, 28, is a huge source of power, with 90 home runs over the last three years. He’s put up a productive .218/.312/.459 slash over that span, indicating that this immense pop makes up for an equally monumental strikeout rate.
But that still leaves unaddressed the matter of defense, and that’s just not an area where Carter shines. He is more or less unplayable in the outfield, and also hasn’t drawn very good reviews at first, either. As a bat-only player, the overall production record just wasn’t quite good enough — it seems — to support his projected earning capacity.
Backup to Duda
carter to pirates, pedro alvarez to astros
gotta think the Padres flirt with Alvarez
I don’t think the pads are cute enough for him.
power left handed bat, we will see soon if there is a love connection
Chris Carter should go back to the NFL and give up playing baseball.
cmon man!
See now here’s a guy…
Chris carter and mark Reynolds will be competing for backup infield jobs while striking out a lot and hitting hrs.
Pirates might be a nice place for him to land and I wonder how many HRs a healthy Carter could hit in PNC???
PNC isn’t that friendly for home runs
I like Carter! He was fun to watch when he made contact. But I’m glad to see his 150 plus strikeouts go. I wish him luck wherever he ends up.
The beauty with Carter is that he could hit 220 but get on base at a 330 clip. He reminds me of Adam Dunn, except much cheaper. He’s going to be a solid buy low piece.
He’s actually a better DH than many DH’s with jobs *cough Billy Butler cough*.
Somewhere Jack Z is pissed this happened after he got fired.
Mariners
Reed is a good looking prospect. Watched him a few times against nwa. Guy can rake
Rockies will grab him or Alvarez and one of them will hit 50 bombs next year.
Carter had a lot of pop but his epic mid-season slump is why he’s been non-tendered. I hope this means Luhnow is backing off last year’s plan to run with mostly high strikeout – low average hitters. Kind of bummed to see Conger go too, as a backup catcher we could do a lot worse.
Carter has been extremely hot and cold his entire career, its kind of his MO. A good hitting coach would do wonders with him.
This has “Carter to the Rays” written all over it. I would take Rays and Twins against the field in this one.
Carter and Alvarez should both go there. Loney can be the late inning D replacement guy he truly is.
Maybe a good sign offensively that with the Royals World Series win this year combined with last years success based on “making contact” and putting pressure on the defense to consistently make plays on a ball put into play, that the strikeout isn’t a “productive ” at bat. All or nothing puts no pressure on the “D”. Just looks pretty.
The Royals Would Never sign a guy like Chris Carter, they want good defensive outfielders with a nice bat, they don’t strikeout that much, the Last thing they need is Chris Carter
@JohnBoman2001
Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I totally agree with you. What I meant is the seemingly the Royals philosophy of putting the ball in play with contact to put pressure on the D is a clear departure from non contact/all or nothing guys like Carter. His value then is only to a team, probably like Oakland, that still believes that a strikeout is a productive at bat.
Oops not Carter my bad Alvarez,
I’m sure there’s got to be a team out there that could grab both Carter and Alvarez as their 1B & DH and contend with that power alone in the lineup. Oakland? Both are better than Billy Butler.
I see a good fit in Boston. David Ortiz is retiring, the sign Carter to back him up. Get a year of experience working with Ortiz could get him up to par to take over the DH spot for the future in Boston.
that’s hanley
Billy Butler has turned into a waist of money, he was good when he was younger, but now he is a guy that will get you almost nowhere
Remember when you use to be embarrassed to average over 1 strikeout per game? He’s definitely not worth much money as he’s an all or nothing. His defense is just awful and with his momentum busting K’s, why would you want him? He’s basically limited to about 5 teams unless some NL teams wants to waste money on an occasional hit.