Astros utilityman Marwin Gonzalez has switched representation and is now a client of Scott Boras, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reports (on Twitter). Gonzalez’s hiring of Boras comes on the heels of teammate Dallas Keuchel’s decision to join up with baseball’s most famous agent. Both players are scheduled to hit free agency next offseason.
The 28-year-old Gonzalez, a standout with last season’s World Series winners, took an indirect route to prominence. The Venezuelan signed with the Cubs in 2005 and later had an extremely brief stint with the Red Sox, who selected him in the 2011 Rule 5 draft before trading him to the Astros that day. Gonzalez debuted in Houston in 2012 and struggled over his first two major league seasons, batting a miserable .227/.266/.323 in 441 plate appearances as part of a pair of 50-some-win teams.
The rebuilding Astros began making real progress in the win-loss column during a 70-victory 2013 season, when Gonzalez started showing he could be a legitimate contributor. Since then, the switch-hitter has slashed a solid .271/.321/.432 in 1,935 plate appearances, including an excellent .303/.377/.530 with 23 home runs in 515 PAs last season. Gonzalez has added to his value by logging between 78 and 252 appearances at second base, left field (his spot during the Astros’ title run), third base, first base and shortstop.
Both the Astros and Gonzalez and will try to replicate their 2017 success next season, though there’s some skepticism about the latter’s chances. Good fortune on batted balls was a key factor in Gonzalez’s impressive offensive outburst, as Statcast indicates his actual weighted on-base average (.387) far surpassed his expected wOBA (.320). Gonzalez’s lifetime wOBA happens to be .320, and returning to that level next season certainly wouldn’t be an ideal outcome in a contract year. The Astros could attempt to extend Gonzalez before then, but for now, he’s slated to make a reasonable $5.125MM in 2018.
You should just start posting when players aren’t repped by Boras instead.
love Marwin but he might be one of those guys we have to let go. Pretty awesome to have an infield of Yuli, Altuve, Correa, and Bregman…with Marwin as the fill-in who can capably play LF. But all except Yuli will need paydays in the future, which may render Marwin out of our price range. JD Davis, Colin Moran, Tyler White, AJ Reed, and Tony Kemp also give us cheaper internal options that can help fill in on the infield, given that Bregman can easily slide to SS or 2B at times
how long until we hear how he is the games next great superstar and how he is worth 200 million?
$$$$$$$$$$
everyday we find out that a player is going to leave the astros soon, see ya Marwin
Stros are not going to over-pay……it will be see ya – fill in the blanks – in favor of guys coming up from the minor leagues or affordable free agents. They will add pieces here and there of the expensive variety when it makes sense. I see no change in their approach going forward.
I have a strong disdain towards the Astros. However it sucks that all but a few teams have the financials to keep a group of young players together.
If there is any good news with the players going with Boras, it’s that Houston at least knows which players they need to have contingency plans for.
Love Marwin at $7-8M per year for 2-3 year deal. But Boras will go after $12-14M for 4-5 years which he isn’t worth yet. If he duplicates what he did last year then yes, but not with the Astros. If Marwin goes would love to see TKemp get the chance as the utility player.
And someone, (Arlington) will give it to him!
Rangers love scooping up Astros spares
No way a 2-3 year deal at 7 mil a year will keep him. Marwin is looking at 5-6 years at around 15 mil a season if he does what he did last year.
That’s a head scratcher
He’s replaceable. The whole Astros team will be on Boras at this rate. Can you imagine if correa switches to him ? Yikes
Players changed agent just like that? No penalty($) if you cancel the contrat??
You’re really upset that the agents aren’t being compensated enough?
The 70 win season was in 2014. They lost 111 games in 2013.
Hey man being knowledgeable isnt important here, bud. Like who actually pays attention kek (sarcasm)
All I know is the Astros needs to go ahead and re-sign these players to a huge contract. Ryan and company needs to take care of the guys who has been there through all the ups and downs, and stuck with them. Give your guys the contracts that they deserve and let them be Astros for life. Just remember take care of those who took care of you. These players are the core of Houstons sports. And the heartbeat of the Astros. Just don’t forget they got y’all a World Series win. By never giving up and fighting through all the odds that was stacked against them. And they also took care of all the folks in Houston and the surrounding areas after Harvey wiped out everything. So please if the Astros powers to be reads this please don’t let these guy slip away from y’all next year and years to come. The Houston Astros has a very special team and front office staff. Thanks from a huge Houston supporter.
Worked wonders for the Phillies after they did that.
Philly had no farm system and really only have put one bad contract. That was Run Howard. The Astros are smart enough to not invest in a corner anything long term.
The Astros will pay altuve and correa because they play up the middle. Springer may end up in a corner, so he may end up elsewhere in 3 years.
I think the Astros don’t trade anyone on the big league roster who has been successful until next offseason. Where they may dip their toe into the starting pitching market. Dallas Keachul is not an Astro after next season unless he shows a full 200 innings.
But I fully expect altuve to be an Astro for life and Correa as well. Can’t say anything for anyone else, but the Astros don’t have players locked up further than 3 years from now and that is because they are waiting to be paying 25 million dollar contracts to a couple players.
I wouldn’t expect Altuve to be a “Astro” for life. He fired Scott Boras to sign the awful contract he has now only to go back to Boras once he realized how bad of a deal it actually was. Boras and Jose are going to go out and get as much money as they can.
Are you serious? So spend money on dumb contracts for loyalty? Do you like winning? No reason to over pay for a 30 year starter with health issues and a utility guy coming off a career year. It’s a business.
Finally, someone who gets it. I honestly wouldn’t opposed to dealing both players for a solid return and then go plug their spots with FAs.
Marwin is not a core player. Neither is Keuchel. That list is made up of Altuve, Correa, Springer and Bregman.
Jerry Cransick is about three weeks late on this story. I sent MLBtraderumors this story three weeks ago and they never published it. You can go ahead and credit Brad Glover as the real source of this information. Thanks.
Marwin’s previous agency: Octagon.
His agency before that: Relativity Baseball
His next agent: Jerry McGuire
Nah, Scott is jerry
In a couple of years these Houston players will be on other teams
That’s how they restock
Extend who they can trade the others and restart
I’m not sure if agent changes are that important where we really need a new article every time a player hires (or fires) an agent.
It should probably get the “minor roster moves” treatment… let a few weeks pass and then aggregate all the agency changes into one summary article.
Just my opinion of course.
Marwin Gonzalez most recently represented by Octagon.
Keep the pressure on gentlemen (and ladies). They WILL address their systematic omission of agents who lost their clients sooner or later.
Can we at least get an explanation from MLBTR about why they don’t publish former agencies? Maybe they did and I missed it, but I’m tired of hearing people speak for MLBTR.
Been waiting for a response for months
Thanks. I wanted to know and as usual nothing in the poorly written article said anything
Just keep complaining and writing comments on here like you are doing. Maybe even leave negative reviews on the app with reference to the unprofessional omissions you pointed out (reviews can always be changed later).
Bahahaha good luck Astros
Not sure what this is supposed to mean? They did what smaller markets do. Rebuild win and then start again when the key players leave…..
The past month I’ve been wondering about Marwin’s trade value. He’s turning into a great player, still not too old and has that position versatility that few, if any other players have in MLB. However, he only has a year left. I also think he’ll come back down to earth and that’s why I even bring this up.
If the Astros traded him I wonder what we could get. Maybe sell high if resigning isn’t realistic and cash him in for relief help who could be here for 2+ years. It’s a gamble, but Bregman can play 2B, SS, 3B and Yuli is a 3B playing 1B so we still have some flexibility. It’s not something I’d necessarily hope for, but it’d be worth exploring. There’s not a team in baseball who couldn’t find a spot for him.
Right now I think he is the left fielder. Though if dealt a righty platoon with someone and Fisher could work. But fisher looked real bad and may need to work on some things. Tucker is a year away.
Also to add to your point 3b depth is insane in the Astros system.
Marwin wasn’t a long term astro anyway. Do not want to get money tied up in him when all money needs to be free to lock down the big 3.