MLB’s Winter Meetings have wrapped up, and they were chock full of big deals and hot rumors. Here is all the stuff you want to know for your Houston Astros and from around MLB:
- The Astros made one pick in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft:
Munoz has not had much success at the MLB level, going 2-7 with a 6.73 ERA over 27 appearances (17 starts) covering 93.2 IP. He has swing-and-miss stuff, but struggles with command as evidenced by
high walk and HR rates. As a major league Rule 5 selection, the Astros will have to carry him on the MLB roster or risk losing the player as player would have to clear waivers and the original team must reject being offered the player for half the drafting fee ($50K) before player can be removed from 40-man and optioned to minors.
- Chandler Rome of The Athletic broke down the contract details for Astros SP Ryan Weiss:
- According to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Astros are showing interest in Brewers’ SP Freddy Peralta:
“The Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros are among the teams in on Peralta, according to people familiar with the Brewers’ discussions.“
- That being reported, previous statements by Astros GM Dana Brown have indicated team is not getting a lot of interest in their minor league players but in their major league players (specifically Isaac Paredes and Jake Meyers). Chandler Rome posited that the Astros most likely path to starting pitching is the trade market:
- Rome also addresses that with the laid out plans for Altuve and Alvarez, there are likely not enough Abs for both Paredes and Walker, and it is likely at least one will need to be moved:
- The Phillies made a big splash keeping their biggest slugger:
- Could that be the first domino for the Phillies?
- The Baltimore Orioles signed former Mets 1B Pete Alonso for 5 years, $155M, as the deconstruction of the Mets continues:
Alonso has been an incredibly durable player, who has never missed more than 10 games in a season. Someone obviously forgot to tell that to Stephen A. Smith, or tell him that 2020 was a 60-game season due to COVID-19:
- The Mets also lost all-world closer Edwin Diaz to the bottomless pit of money known as the Los Angeles Dodgers:
The Mets were outbid for their own star closer by $3M. Total.
- Rumor Mill is hot and heavy featuring some big name players:
- ESPN’s Jorge Castillo believes a trade of Tigers’ 2x Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is likely.
- ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reports the Dodgers would be open to trading SP Tyler Glasnow.
- Gonzalez also states the Marlins are engaged in conversations about trading SP Edward Cabrera.
- Jeff Passan of ESPN says the Rangers are listening on offers for SS Corey Seager.
- Passan furthers that several 2B could be on the move, including the Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte, Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan, Rays’ Brandon Lowe, Giants’ Jake Cronenworth, Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Mets’ Jeff McNeil.
- ESPN’s Jesse Rogers feels a trade involving Nationals’ SP MacKenzie Gore is likely.
You can read more on those items and more from ESPN here:
- The Atlanta Braves signed RP Robert Suarez:
Reports indicate Suarez will be the primary setup man, #2 closer behind Raisel Iglesias, whom the team previously re-signed earlier this offseason.
- Braves also signed Mike Yastremski:
- The Cubs brought in a lefty reliever:
- The Athletics also signed a reliever:
- Bob Nightengale of USA Today gave 10 predictions of moves following the Winter Meetings, and one of them was the Mets trading for Astros 1B Christian Walker:
“The Mets take a run at Bellinger, but wind up trading for Astros first baseman Christian Walker or signing free agent Kazuma Okamoto, while also signing starter Michael King and reliever Robert Suarez.“
