The Astros and reigning AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel have not discussed a contract extension this winter, agent Darek Braunecker tells MLB Network Radio (via Twitter). The two sides have talked about a new deal in the past, but that apparently hasn’t taken place in the last couple of months.
“At this point, we have not engaged the club in any sort of long-term discussions. It’s common knowledge that we had some discussion during the season last year and it was just preliminary seeing where one another stood. They approached us, kicked the tires, and got a sense where both parties were at that time,” Braunecker said.
The 28-year-old Keuchel was fighting for a rotation spot as recently as Spring Training 2014, but his remarkable transformation into a bona fide ace atop the Houston rotation was completed with a dominant follow-up to a breakout 2014 season. Keuchel led the AL with 232 innings (trailing only Clayton Kershaw’s 232 2/3 innings for the MLB lead) and worked to a pristine 2.48 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and an AL-best 61.7 percent ground-ball rate.
Keuchel is eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason and is set for a significant payout in 2016 thanks to his dominant performance in 2015 capped by a Cy Young award. A deal could make sense for both sides, but Keuchel will be demanding a hefty pay day. The hurler is currently slated to hit the open market heading into his age-31 season and the Astros, presumably, would want to lock down at least one of his free agency years. Delaying his free agency by even one year would probably put a five-year max on the free-agent deal Keuchel could secure, as teams rarely guarantee pitchers’ age-37 seasons in long-term deals. Then again, the two sides could conceivably work out a deal that only covers Keuchel’s arbitration years, leaving his potential future free agent fortune unaffected.
It is very weird to point out the age-37-year thing while not pointing out that someone bucked the trend about a month ago.
“rarely.” It’s not like it never happens, just rare.
Keuchel is way over rated, one really good year should not make him one of the best in the league, just look at Dustin Ackley, he had a really good rookie year, and since then he has done nothing. And any pitcher could have a perfect record at home if there offense scored enough, and Keuchle had his breakout season later than most star pitchers
So his age makes his performance overrated? Last I checked Arrieta did the same thing.
Then you have recent position players do it too like Bautista, Chris Davis, David Peralta, and Josh Donaldson. Keuchel is far from overrated
One really good year doesn’t. But when that one really good year wins a Cy Young, then it does. Corey Kluber is older than Keuchel but I doubt anyone is claiming he’s overrated or had his breakout season too late.
2.98 2014
2.43 2015
Less hit to innings pitched both years maybe you check some stats b4 commenting.
Maybe you should check your stats, because I’m pretty sure he had a 2.48 era this year
damn, .05 on the era. GOOD JOB @BASEBALLRAT. Don’t you know a 2.48 era and a cy young mean nothing?!?!
OH MY! I was off by .5, but nice to see how you deflected your baseless “one year wonder” statement. Enjoy your rotating manager’s seat in Seattle, though
Sounds a lot like Lloyd McClendon’s comments about him…. Also he dominates the M’s, so you think your opinion would be a little better than what it currently is, since zero is backed up by stats…
Great point about Dustin Ackley, they both have beards so you’re right, Dallas Keuchel will probably implode next season.
See, somebody understands real logic
I he making fun of you. 🙂 Keuchel will remain good . After changed his pitching form after 2015 he remained pretty elite .
The only thing that’s overrated is the entire Seattle Mariners ballclub.
Which was only last year. Most people have realized the Mariners aren’t as good, thus they can’t be overrated. I might be a little biased since I am a Mariners fan, but there was plenty of reason to believe in the hype.
Going into last year, the rotation was expected to be even better than the previous (which was decent to begin with considering Iwakuma had a better year than Felix), the bullpen was the one of the best the previous year and I doubt anyone pegged the bullpen to be nearly as bad as it actually was, Cano was coming off a good year (and struggled with injuries throughout most of the year) and the young guys were expected to be even better. Cruz wasn’t even expected to play as well as he did considering he was going to be playing most of his games in Safeco. On top of that, not many people expected Houston or Texas to play as well as they did.
I agree that in hindsight, the Mariners (and the Nationals while we’re at it) were arguably the most overrated teams going into the season when you take a look at expectations and actual results. This year, however, most people (myself included) believe that the Mariners might not even make the playoffs this year considering how much better the AL West is. Considering that, you can hardly say that the Mariners are being overrated at the moment.