Astros owner Jim Crane spoke with reporters Wednesday and addressed a number of topics, including his thoughts on potential rule changes throughout the game, Manny Machado’s recent agreement with the Padres and the potential for some Astros moves (link via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). Crane acknowledged that the Astros “certainly are going to look at” the possibility of a contract extension with Justin Verlander and/or Gerrit Cole. However, he didn’t put a timeline on those talks and was generally vague, suggesting they could take place anytime between now and at the end of the season. “…[I]t just all depends on what they want to do and whether they want to stick here and for what number they want to stick here,” Crane said of his top two starters.
Crane wouldn’t comment much on former Astros Dallas Keuchel and Marwin Gonzalez, both of whom remain unsigned, though he didn’t expressly rule out a reunion. “Hopefully they’ll land in the right spot and certainly it could be one or two of them might be back here,” said Crane, though he declined to say whether Houston has made an actual offer to either player (beyond the qualifying offer which Keuchel rejected back in November).
Here’s more from the division…
- The Mariners could be active in their efforts to pick up some bullpen depth over the course of Spring Training, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Divish notes that right-hander Anthony Swarzak, acquired to help balance out the financial component of the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz blockbuster, isn’t likely to be ready for Opening Day (due to shoulder discomfort). With that in mind, Seattle is likely to take to the waiver wire in an effort to bolster its depth, though it doesn’t sound as if the club is intent on spending significantly in order to bolster its ’pen at this point.
- Angels righty Nick Tropeano is still two and a half weeks from throwing a full bullpen session and is roughly five to seven weeks from being ready to pitch in a game setting, writes Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Tropeano experienced a December setback in his rehab from shoulder issues that dogged him throughout the 2018 season, which has him behind schedule this spring. Tonight’s update provides a clearer timetable than was previously available. Tropeano tells Bollinger that he’s been doing increased video work with new pitching coach Doug White (formerly the Astros’ bullpen coach) to make adjustments to his delivery that’ll hopefully lessen the stress he places on his shoulder.
- In a Q&A with Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Rangers designated hitter Shin-Soo Choo addressed a number of topics, including Adrian Beltre’s retirement, the atmosphere under new skipper Chris Woodward and his own future in baseball. Choo, who is signed for another two seasons, empathized with Beltre’s desire to spend more time with his family but also voiced a desire to continue playing so long as he is physically able to do so. “Baseball, sports, is a short career,” said the veteran slugger. “If you’re healthy and can perform on the field, I definitely can play. At the same time, I have a family. My wife has been a single mom for eight months for 16 years.” Choo’s bat cratered in the second half last season, but he was slashing a robust .293/.405/.506 at the All-Star break. He’s owed $21MM in each of the next two seasons.
Plenty of options for the M’s out there and for other clubs…..
I wonder if Nick Vincent could be a target to comeback.
Well maybe
Verlander will extend with Astros given his age however Cole may look for bigger dollars that’s just not there atm.
We fully expecting Verlander to finish career in LA. Maybe even on discount. He and wife wanted LA when they left Detroit. They also wanted quicker route to free agency before agree to waive trade clause.
Astro probably not for Cole extension, instead, keep do youth develops and great trade deals for try to squeeze one or two more WS parades out of this core.
If JV is barking about the market now, just wait til he is a FA.
No chance. Now that he has a ring, Justin Verlander-Upton will do what his wife wants, so he’ll be an Angel or Dodger, especially since they bought a place in Beverly Hills.
Cole is a Boras client, and 9 out of 10 of his hit the FA market.
Well maybe Choo should have stayed single a bit longer…..
Who are all you women down-voting this guy? He had an opinion and he cared enough to express it. End of story, right?
Wrong! By downvoting him, you’ve expressed your disdain for the given opinion. But you did so under the cloak of anonymity. Man-up, ladies, and put a name to your opinion.
Bottom line, … marriage is a wonderful institution upon which great societies have been built. But please bear in mind, it’s not for everyone. That may change over time for a given individual, but your bully tactics are out of line here.
Do you really want people rushing to the altar at a time in their lives when they have serious doubts? Peer pressure is a powerful influence which should be wielded most cautiously.
Lol! What a friggin fragile snowflake this guy is.
How dare you speak with pragmatism! It’s 2019 & outlandish behavior rules the day, not straight forward/down the middle thinking and we can’t have this any longer…
Lighten up, Francis…it’s a downvote on a message board. It doesn’t matter.
Your slip is showing
It’s 2019 and ANYTHING will make someone outraged, truly. Downvoting is a bully tactic…yeah. Consider yourself bullied pal.
Jfc. Let the guy live his life. We are gonna be critical of this guy marrying and having a child?
I just downvoted because everyone else was doing it.
If Crane extends either player; Verlander, and/or Cole, I’ll look at him less cheap.
How do you look at someone “cheap?”
Altuves contract didn’t do that? X is the BEST thing about this site! THE BEST!
Report this pop
dionls— the worst thing.
How do you look at other men, xabial child? What adjectives would you use to describe other males?
go look up how !to use a semi,colon instead of commenting;
All these questions about spending more money are a little off putting for Crane, who is used to just cashing his welfare (revenue share) check every year and going about his business.
Agreed that Verlander will likely end up in LA to finish his career although I’d love to see him back in Detroit
Agree so much, Verlander two or three okay Tiger years away from holding all of Tiger all-time pitching records.
I’m a little surprised that Marwin Gonzalez is still unsigned.
I’m obviously setting myself up for disappointment, but I continue to hold out hope that the Indians will sign him. He would be a tremendous fit and upgrade.
if I had the kind of money these guys had I would retire and spend the rest of my life with my kids. can’t raise kids if you’re not there no amount of money can change that
The Astros rotation can possibly be pretty bare after next season. Huge money decisions to be made. If they want to extend springer than one of cole and verlander will walk for sure
At some point Crane is going to have to spend to keep the contention window open. He went to bat in the Verlander trade and the Altuve extension so he has done it before. If both look to leave in FA I see a trade got another starter before the deadline, maybe Stroman?
For 21 million a year, my wife would have been a single mom for 8 months……heck, for that money, she’d tell me to stay away the rest of the year too.
“my wifes been a single mom for years” well it also certainly helps when you are making 21 million per year.
It feels like Choo has been with the Rangers for 10+ years already.
True that, I was sure hoping we would have got more outta him, instead we’ve been stuck with a bad contract. If we have a bad year they will try to move him at deadline cause he would be down to one year, I think this is also the last year of the Prince Fielder contract. Would love for my boys to have a bunch of money to spend next year,I read somewhere we’re only at $95 million this year.
Are the Rangers still paying A-Rod?
Yes, but 2019 is the last year they have to pay him. The Yankees on the other hand will be done paying him after the 2020 season.
Many of you don’t know that the Mariners had a youth movement plan similar to the Astros. But instead of names like Correa, Altuve, Springer, Bregman, etc. we had names like Brad Miller, Ackley, Smoak, Zunino, Nick Franklin, Michael Saunders, ad nauseam.
All of those guys you listed for the Mariners were supposed to be the real deal, except for Saunders I don’t remember hearing much about him coming up. And not only those guys, but they were supposed to have 4 aces in the rotation too with Hultzen, Paxton, Walker joining Felix. The problem is that NONE of the guys worked out when they were a Mariner except for Paxton really. The Astros however, ALL of the guys they have drafted have worked out with a small exception of Appel. Its the luck of the draw and the Mariners seem to have the worst luck. At least they didn’t have 100-plus loss seasons 4 years in a row, however.
Michael Saunders was Baseball America’s 30th-ranked prospect in 2010:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=saunde001mic
Alex Bregman topped out at No. 42 in 2016.
Fair enough, I stand corrected. I’m a fan of both teams but much more of an Astros fan.
The Astros tanked for 3-4 years in a row with 100 loss seasons to get all the draft picks ( The fruit that is showing today) some would say tanking because of the 70-80 million dollar payrolls they had. I personally am envious of this team cause they are hard to beat now, but they have lost 4-5 people from the coaching staff and multiple players since the World Series and they will have to give out lots more money also,The Rangers went through the same after back to back World Series,Everyone wanted more money.
Yeah, the Mariners scouting and drafting department were awful back then. Two of those names you mentioned were #2 overall picks in their draft class’.
mariners never went into a complete rebuild or they would have traded King Felix. The mariners fans never wanted him traded and the team went along with it. Now he is at the end of his career never reaching post season. If they raded him when his value was one of the highest in baseball they might have 3 very good players right now.
At the 2009 trade deadline the Red Sox reportedly offered the Mariners any five of these eight players in a trade for a 23-year-old Felix Hernandez, who that year posted 6.2 fWAR:
RHP Clay Buchholz
RHP Daniel Bard
RHP Justin Masterson
LHP Nick Hagadone
RHP Michael Bowden
LHP Felix Doubront
OF Josh Reddick
SS Yamaico Navarro
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/sources-mariners-nixed-three-way-felix-hernandez-trade-sending-padres-slugger-adrian-gonzalez-to-seattle/
Since 2009 Hernandez has posted 35.5 fWAR, Reddick 18.5 fWAR, Buchholz 14.6 fWAR and the others negligible fWAR.
I suspect the Mariners don’t regret declining that reported offer.
Nice try but I wasn’t talking 2009. Mariners never went through a complete rebuild in any of those years. You do not trade a young 23 Y O pitcher but a 30 Y O pitcher YES. They have turned down numerous trade offers for him. They probably could have gotten Bettis for him in 2014 before Bettis went to CF. Now in his twilight of his career he is not worth a top prospect.
Yeah, that’s not right at all. The Mariners were trying to win in 2014, they signed Cano and finished one game out of the second wild card. Why would they trade their best player in the middle of a playoff race? And no, the Red Sox were not offering Betts. The only report I’ve seen of what teams offered for Felix is what Muskie73 already posted. So, please show me the numerous trade offers for him.
Felix Hernandez posted only 2.9 fWAR as a 29-year-old before falling to 1.0, 0.4 and 0.3 fWAR the following three seasons.
I highly doubt the offers for a 30-year-old Hernandez were better than the reported ho-hum offer in 2009.
Choo can hit at times but can’t field, He has been a thorn in our side the past few years because of the money and not being able to field his position, Hopefully he will have a good year this year and not tie up the D.h spot with the way he ended the year last season, I believe the Rangers are gonna surprise a few people this year, half the team is on one year contracts and will have to prove themselves to get better deals next year, Looking forward to the new stadium in 2020 and the big names Texas will try to sign. Lotta big names gonna be free agents come November.
Would love to see my Rangers sign Gerrit Cole and another big name pitcher to open our new stadium.
Ranger’s downfall started with J Hamilton and Fielder’s long term contracts.
Funny you say that when Manny just signed a long term deal. How many years before Padres fans say the same thing? I say 2 years and they are tired of the Manny show.
What? The Rangers got peak value out of Hamilton. It was the Angels that got hammered by the contract.
Rangers got lucky and traded Arod before his value went way down.
What? A-Rod put up tremendous numbers for New York including an MVP. It was the tail end of his SECOND deal, the one for 275 million that looked bad at the tail end.
I think there’s got to be too many teams that would guarantee him two years and thus can’t see him going for one year with an option. If that were the case, might see something similar to Moustakas’ deal, but I’m guessing he gets a two year deal with a mutual option that maxes out at $25 mil. over 3yrs; $7 mil 2019, $8 mil 2020, $10 mil mutual option w/$2 mil buyout.
Where’s Chris Berman when you need him to say Shin Soo “Big League”,Choo? The M’s traded a young Choo for 441 forgettable at bats from the immortal Ben Broussard!
Maybe the worst contract in Ranger history.