Astros winter report w/Chandler Rome: Framber market, Paredes trade block? Altuve/Correa out of WBC mix

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Crush City Territory host Chandler Rome and Astro's reporter for the Athletic joining us right now. Chandler, good to see you. And the Astros are fresh off there fan Fest, so we want to get some insight from that, but I want to make sure that anyone tuning in that's not an Astros fan stays locked in. It appears as if there's still a chance that the Astros have a trade chip or two that could be very valuable for another team. So Chandler, I want to start there. Let's go to ESSOC parades. How do you think this plays out? And what would you do with the infield logjam that they're dealing with.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: Well, Scott, I've been saying for the last week or so that I'd be surprised if they break camp from West Palm Beach with this glut of infielders on the roster. It just seems untenable to a point where you don't have everyday playing time for both ESOC Paradis and Christian Walker Joe spot Are reaffirmed at FanFest that Josel Twoveyle spend most of his season at second base. You're on Alvarez, Will spend a majority of his season at DH. Now, both of those guys can play some left field, and they will play some left field, but the majority of their time are going to come at those two positions. Those are really the only other two positions Esach Paradis can play now. Yeah, sure, Carlos Korea could use a day off at third base every now and then, Paradis can play there. If Jeremy Pania needs a day off at shortstop, maybe they stick Paradus. There should be noted that Panya was on track to play one hundred and sixty two games last year before he broke his ribs, So I don't envision the left side of the infield coming off the field much. So you're looking at two guys that are going to make about thirty million dollars between the two of them, and you're looking at a time share at first base, and I wonder, how how is that a prudent use of resources for a club that has already been pretty mindful of its luxury tax positioning This winner, so obviously Estoc Paradis will bring more value back than Christian Walker would on the trade market. Christian Walker also has a limited no trade clause that allows him to void trades to six teams. I don't know what those teams are. As far as what I would do, I would, you know, I would look and see what makes the twenty twenty six Astros best, because at the end of the day, this is a team that is in win now mode. This is not a team that is planning for the future. This is not a team that's trying to Stockpilot's farm system and retool. This is a team that is trying to win now. Aana Brown is in the last year of his contract as a general manager, Joe spot is in the last year of his contract as a manager. They are trying to win a championship in twenty twenty six. I would do whatever it takes to ensure that the twenty twenty six Astros are the best that they can be.

00:02:55
Speaker 3: Okay, So then either of those two Christian Walker or Escac parades, what do they bring back? What is the need? Because I mentioned it earlier that possibly maybe a Jared Duran if the Red Sox don't figure out third base or second base before opening day.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: Well, it was interesting to hear Dana Brown talk at FanFest. He reiterated that he is trying to acquire a left handed bat. Only the Angels took fewer plate appearances by a left handed hitter last year than the Astros, and Victor Karattini took half of those for the Astros. He's now with the Twins, so obviously having Jordan Alvarez back for a full season will help. They want to get some run out of Zach Cole, their left handed hitting rookie outfielder. That'll help, but this is still an unbalanced lineup. So I think Dana, if he had his druthers, he would go to find a left handed bat. What do the Boston Red Sox have a lot of They have a lot of left handed hitting outfielders that are kind of expendable. So connecting the dots, it does make some sense to link the Red Sox and the Astros for a Paradus sort of deal. The Red Sox can use some help at third base. Estoc Paradus would rake in that ballpark given his poll tendencies. He also rakes at diik In Park. So what I have been able to ascertain is that the Astros like will You're a bray you probably more than Jaron Duran that there They are much more intrigued by him for good reason. He used to be in the Astros farm system. He was part of the trade in twenty twenty two that went to the Red Sox in exchange for Christian Vasquez, so they know him well. He's making less money. Jared Durant is gonna make about seven million dollars this year. Will you or a brad You's still making the league minimum. He's a two time Gold Glover in right field. They value that defense. I tell you, I think they are much more intrigued by will you er a bray you than Duran in any conversations that they're having with the Red Sox.

00:04:51
Speaker 3: Obviously this was in an Astro's publication or you didn't say this, But when you look up the projected lineup on the Internet of against right hand, right handed pitchers, they have Cam Smith sitting. Is there an environment where the twenty twenty six Houston Astros aren't good or are good without Cam Smith getting every day at bats? My contention was he should be somebody righty's or lefties that should get six hundred at bats this season.

00:05:22
Speaker 1: Well.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: Cratzy Dana Brown has said on numerous occasions that that Cam Smith is not guaranteed a roster spot going to spring training. He's gonna have to win one. You know, an argument could be made that he should have probably been in the minor leagues for the last two months of last year. He was not an everyday player. By the end of last year. The struggles really started to mount on him. But the Ashers had so many injuries and they have no real help at the upper minor leagues that it really would have made no sense to send them to the minor leagues by that point. So, you know, I think if Cam goes to West Palm Beach and does what he did last spring, I don't think we're having this conversation. I think he sails on to the team. I think he's pretty comfortably entrenched in right field and we're not having this discussion. But he's got to prove himself. He's got to prove himself in spring training. That's something that he talked about at FanFest. To hear twenty three year old have this sort of perspective, he said. You know, we asked him how it hit him when he heard that Dana Brown said that his spot's not guaranteed, and he said that's business. It's nothing personal. It's I got to go, I gotta go play, I gotta go compete, And I think the other thing cratzy that could enter this calculus. They do still have Hayesu Sanchez on the roster. They are fielding trade interests in Haesu Sanchez. He did not have a good tenure with the Astros after being acquired from the Marlins at the deadline. He is, however, a left handed hitter and he is his most natural position is right field. So if they don't trade him, and if he goes to camp and he maybe shows some flashes of what they thought he was going to be last year and Cam Smith struggles in spring training, Dana Brown's already told you they need a left in a bat, they need more balance. Maybe that's from within the team.

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00:08:06
Speaker 4: Damn, that's a lot of pressure to put on a twenty three year old kid who was traded obviously for Kyle Tucker and and was supposed to be the big piece in that trade.

00:08:15
Speaker 3: Why would they do that to him?

00:08:16
Speaker 4: Why why not be Dana Brown and say hey, we're not sure, Like, why would you want to throw all this pressure on Cam Smith? You gotta go out and have a great spring training, man, because if you don't, guess, well, you're going back.

00:08:28
Speaker 3: I think Triple A is in Round Rock. They're going back to round Rock, right.

00:08:31
Speaker 4: Like, why not just say hey, we'll just see how it goes and maybe it'll all work out like most gms do.

00:08:37
Speaker 2: Sugarland A j. Don't don't disrespect Rock.

00:08:43
Speaker 4: Are they still the sugar Land Skeeters.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: No, they're the Space Cowboys.

00:08:48
Speaker 3: Oh jeez, come on.

00:08:51
Speaker 2: Some people call them the Space Cowboys.

00:08:55
Speaker 3: Some people call me the Gangster of Love.

00:08:56
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Steve Miller Ki, You know I agree with what you're saying.

00:09:04
Speaker 1: AJ.

00:09:05
Speaker 2: I get the gist. But like, they've already put so much pressure on this kid. I mean, they debuted him at the big league level last year, having played thirty two games of professional baseball. Like he has shown just in the way that he handled everything last year and the way that he handled the way he blew up in spring training and then the first couple of months in the season when he was a really good hitter, when he was a productive member of this team. You never saw him get too high. You never saw him get to well. I think that's the one thing that they feel comfortable about with Cam Smith is the makeup. It's what's between the ears. He is wise beyond his age. He's wise beyond his years. He's got an outlook on things that most prospects his age do not have. So I really don't think they're concerned about maybe the pressure that they're putting on him, because I don't think cam Smith feels a ton of pressure. But you know, it's a valid point, and it certainly begs the question, you know, why they took the route that they did last year putting him on the roster to start the season, because you know, it was funny. I was listening to Hein Bloom give an answer about JJ Weatherholt the other the other day about whether JJ Weatherholt will be on the Cardinals opening day roster, and heim Bloom just outright said, I don't. I'm not going to care what he does in spring training. I'm not going to care about stats. I'm not going to care what he does in greape Fruit League play. Dana kind of took the opposite approach with cam Smith. Cam Smith tore up the grape Fruit League last year, just absolutely. His stats were incredible, and he played his way onto the roster in part because of what he did in grape Fruit League play. So was that the right course of action? I'm not sure but you can't argue with the first few months that Cam Smith had in the major leagues. He was he was a valuable, you know, one hundred plus ops plus guy, an above league average player for the first couple of months of the season. You wonder how much fatigue set in towards this back half of the year, and you wonder just how much, you know, pitchers adjusted to him. And this is a game of adjustments, and Cam just couldn't make the adjustment quick.

00:11:04
Speaker 4: Enough, by the way, And Krats will tell you, and he'll agree with me on this. The most overrated month of the season, well, there's two, but it used to be too, but now it's only one spring training and it used to be September when you had a forty man roster, but that's changed. The most overrated time to evaluate somebody spring training. And I know crowds agrees with me, because you get choppers that go for hits, you get guys that aren't you're not playing against the best team the best guy.

00:11:29
Speaker 3: So that's why I'm just like, why do that to the kid? Good for Hunt?

00:11:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even if you looked at who he was facing in Great Fruit League play last year, he faced some big league guys, and he had some success off some big league guys, but a lot of his damage and great Fruit League play last year came off of a ball guys double a like guys that he should have been facing as a twenty one year old kid with thirty two games of professional experience. So yeah, it's just a different way of evaluating it. And Dana is Dana comes from a scouting back. He comes from a player evaluation, on field results kind of background. He values that. That is what he values. And you know, they made the decision that they made, and now they're going to have to navigate a spring training with him that is going to be completely different than the last one.

00:12:16
Speaker 3: But Taydler, what if he comes into spring training the best shape of his life. They love the way he's moving around. All those cliches save it. If you think he's good enough, he'll be on the team. If you don't, they made a reason for him to be on the team last year. We get it. Somebody who was on the team last year non anymore, is now a free agent. You've watched Framber Valdez for years. You've watched the fact that they had to always say, well, we're bringing Martin Maldonado. He's there because Martin Maldonado knows how to control Framber. Then you had the catching incident or the catcher incident with say Sar Salzar. What exactly if the narrative that this free agent year right now, this free agency is they are afraid of what the character things about Framber are? What did you see? What did you see from Framber? And what could teams actually be afraid of?

00:13:11
Speaker 2: You know, I can only go off you know, Kratzy and aj. You guys know, media is only in the clubhouse for about hour a day, and trying to glean anything off of the hour that we're in the clubhouse a day is foolish. So I can only really go off of what the people that spent the most time around Fromber here have to say. And I got to tell you he was really well liked by his teammates. He was well liked by Joe Aspada and the coaching staff. They they constantly said that no one works harder than Fromburn. I mean, if you look at the guy too, I mean he doesn't skip chess day, he doesn't skip armed like. He is a put together individual and he works about as hard as anyone. Now, it's pretty obvious that he had to do some image rehabilitation, maybe in free agency. You know, you look at the video that his agency put together aout him, you know, extolling his character, kind of giving you a little bit of background of where Fromber came from, of allowing him and his family to kind of tell the story in his own words. It was also a little anomalous that he went to the GM meetings to meet with teams face to face. You see guys do that at the winter meetings. Sometimes. I don't think I've ever seen a guy go to the GM meetings and do that. Maybe I could be wrong, but that was a little bit. You've always gotten the feeling that he's going to have to explain that, and he's going to have to, you know, come up with, you know, some ways to talk about that. It should be noted too that, you know, he worked with a sports psychologist in the ASTROS system named doctor Andy Nunez, a guy that is at the Dominican He's based in the Dominican at their facility, and he doesn't just work with Fromber, he works with a lot of their Latin American pictures. He works with a lot of their Dominican pictures, and he has really come a long way since his rookie year. A lot of the things you see him do on the mound, the breathing exercises he does. If you watch him pitch, sometimes he'll like, if he throws a pitch he doesn't like, he'll just come off the mound completely, walk a lap around the mound to calm down and then get back. That's something that doctor Andy taught him how to do. So he has evolved a lot maturity wise since he first got into the big leagues, as you would imagine any any pitcher or any any player would as they get older and as they settle into major league life. But as far as why he's still unsigned, you know, I don't know what's going on with the negotiations. I don't know what offers he has or doesn't have, but it's you know, as the days dwindle and as you see you know, spring training and get closer, it's hard to say with certainty that what happened with Ceysar salas are and maybe what happened and just character questions, it's hard to it's hard to say that that's not having some impact. I think he'll still get paid a very handsome salary. He's still really really good. He can still roll out of bed and for one hundred and ninety innings at a sub three five era. That's really hard to do and that's really valuable. But it's hard for me to look at this and think that that's not having at least some impact on his market.

00:16:09
Speaker 4: I agreed, it sucks, but you know what, we all make decisions and they all have to pay for it, so it is what it is. Chandler, here's my thing. The Astros rotation isn't good enough right now with Hunter Brown and Ami. What's am I going to give him? They put in weird and sent us for eighty ninety and one hundred innings. Usually those are much higher numbers. Is there a free agent out there? There's an old guy out there that would look kind of nice in this rotation. He's pitched in Houston a couple of times. You know, he's done some cool things in Houston. Is there a signing out there we could see for the Astros? You know, Jim Crane plays golf with this older fella and all of a sudden Boom. He's a Houston Astro again.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: Should be noted. AJ they played golf together this weekend and at Jim's course in Palm Beach because Jim was hosting a charity event there. There's a lot of baseball players that Kyle Tucker was there, Camp Smith was there, Justin Burl was also there. Look, I think they're done adding to the rotation. You never say never, and I don't think they would ever just completely turn their nose at pitching. You can never have enough pitching. But I think with what they've done, I think if they wanted Justin Verlander, I think if Jim Crane wanted Justin Verlander, I think it probably would have been done by now. I think there was some interest in that maybe earlier in the offseason, but now that the Astros have made all these additions, I'm just not sure that, you know, fiscally, they're going to get where Justin maybe wants his contract to be. He made fifteen million dollars last year, had a very nice second half. You could you could maybe make the argument that he deserves maybe the same salary, if not maybe a little bit less, But you know, I right now, I don't see that happening. But I'll always say, with the caveat if Jim Crane wants it, because he and Justin Verlander are that close. If he decides that, you know he can make it work, and he wants to make it work, you know it surely could happen. But is this rotation good enough? I think the answer and I don't want to put it all on one guy, but I think the answer really lies with the Christian Xavier. I think if Christian Javier can recapture the form that we saw him have in twenty twenty two. You got to remember that he missed all of twenty twenty four with Tommy John and surgery, came back the middle of last year, and you guys know when you come back from Tommy John surgery, those first few starts, that first you know, half a season back never goes well. It's always kind of the reacclamation period. This is his first healthy off season in a while. This will be the first normal season he'll start from you know, Game two or three, whenever they start him till the end. You know, this is a guy that they thought enough of to give a sixty five million dollar contract extension to He has started two combined no hitters, one in the World Series and one at Yankee Stadium. At his best, Christian Javier can be a number two, borderline number one starter if they get him back to form and put him behind Hunter Brown. I think this rotation is good enough. But if they can't get him back to that twenty twenty two form, then yeah, you've got Hunter Brown as your ace, and you've got a lot of guys that while they have a lot of upside, there's a lot of question marks and there's a lot of uncertainty as to what's going to happen. I think the Astros rotation viability and how good they're going to be it really does live with Christian Hobbier.

00:19:23
Speaker 4: Okay, that's that's fair. You Recently, we just had Nolan Arnado on the show and he's going to play for Team Puerto Rico in the WBC. Is that why Carlos Krea decided not to play because he's like, uh, Nolan Arnado is coming over from USA and we know Puerto Rico's not beating USA.

00:19:39
Speaker 2: Well, Nolan could play first. I know there were some teams that wanted him to play first. When he was on the trade block, but no, Carlos isn't going to play in the WBC, and nor is Jose l Twove for Team Venezuela because they could not get the proper insurance on their contracts to make it to where if they were to get hurt in the WBC without the insurance, they would forfeit some of their regular season salary if they would miss any time due to those injuries. Remember Jose al Tuove broke his thumb in twenty twenty three in the World Baseball Classic when he got hit by a pitch. Make no mistake, both Jose al Tuve and Carlos Carrell want to play. They wanted to play for their countries. They both talked about it at FanFest on Saturday. Joseel Tuve even said, I've done everything I normally do to play in the WBC, but this year doesn't seem like it's up to me. And Carlos Correa said he, I mean, I talked to him today. He said he's been taking live vps now for two weeks because he was going to get be ready earlier, to be ready to play in the WBC. These guys wanted to play. These guys wanted to represent their countries, especially Correa, because as you guys know, I think, JA, you'll be here. There's pool play happening at dyke In Park in the WBC. Puerto Rico is not in the pool that's playing at dyke In Park, but if they advance out of their pool, their quarterfinal round is in Houston. So Carlos Korea could have played fourteen Puerto Rico in Houston, which would have been a real full circle moment for him and his family. That's something that he did want to do, but just I think, as he told me, verbade him today just didn't seem like a good business decision. He did not want to have that large of a risk going into the WBC without insurance on his contract. There you go.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: We talked about it a little bit yesterday and now you hear it here. Insurance holding back those guys, just like it did for Clayton Kershaw years back. And now Clayton doesn't care because he's retired. So they can hang out the team, maybe get an appearance or two in their huge loss though in all seriousness for the Venezuelan team and then for Team Puerto Rico. Chandler Good catching up with you as always, man, Crush City territory for everyone, multiple episodes per week, even in the off season. There you go. It's Chandler, it's Josh Reddick, it's Tyler Stafford. It's the best in the base covering the Astros on podcast platforms and digital show on YouTube part of the network. Thanks Chandler, Talk to you soon, man.

00:22:03
Speaker 2: Thanks guys.

00:22:12
Speaker 1: We're going to bring it right here to the BENMGM Futures. Current win total for the Astros Classic eighty five and a half, just like the Padres yesterday. Kratz, wasn't it eighty five and a half for San Diego? M Okay, this is you first, and do you feel better or worse about whatever selection you make versus yesterday?

00:22:37
Speaker 3: I feel worse about this one. I think there's just a lot of I mean saying that Christian Javier has to slot in behind Hunter Brown, or the fact that he my what does the industry think? Is he going to be that great? Is that one? You know? A slider from people from scouts I've talked to that saw him a lot in Japan. The slider's legit is he gonna be a slighter A slider, slider, slider starter. I just feel like there's too much question too many question marks in that rotation for me to supremely say yes, eighty six or more wins is what they're gonna get. I just I think they're good. I don't think we they'll be in it. They'll be in it. Let's put it this way. They'll be in it. They show they can make moves at the break. So that's why I'm fearful of going under. It just feels right on the mark. And I love my Padres pick yesterday. I do not love this pick, but I'm gonna take the over. Okay, I'm taking under. I'm going under just because what a chant in the room.

00:23:45
Speaker 4: Just give us a million different what is so if this goes good and this goes good, and what if this and this and we don't know who's playing here and Altove has to have a better ear and cam Smith needs to make the team, and Alvarez needs to stay healthy and too many as for me, I'm going under it out the way they're.

00:24:00
Speaker 1: Constructed, Rangers just got a little better, and Kenzie Gore.

00:24:06
Speaker 4: Mariners are there, Rangers are better.

00:24:10
Speaker 3: I think the A's will be better, and one if the astros don't hit them in that one month, you know where they seem to struggle every year.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: Who knows.

00:24:23
Speaker 3: It's close, too close, too close to be confident about it.

00:24:27
Speaker 1: For me, yeah, I don't know. I'll go slightly under. Yeah, but like I think this is one where you could get hooked where they finish at eighty five or eighty six. So no, thanks, not touching this one. Bet MGM players, get yourself a little any sport parlay boost token to score a bigger payout. You can mix and match with some sports in there and then activate the token on your bet slip and if you win that wager with the token, extra winnings for you. Go check it out at MGM dot com. We're on the bet mgm app gambling problem. We're concerned. Call on an eight hundred gambling