Astros Insider Chandler Rome on this week’s SHAKE UP

Astros Insider Chandler Rome on this week’s SHAKE UP

And joining me as the first guest of this edition of Paul Galant being unemployed and hosting the Galant says podcast. The first guest is Chandler Rome, Astros beat writer for the Athletic You. You can also hear on the Crush City Territory podcast. Chandler, what’s up? Busy day as we record this on Thursday with the Astros moving on from a lot of guys. Let’s start by talking about head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall, who I think a lot of people, myself included, wanted to see gone during this past season. His contract expired. They didn’t renew him. Anything more to it than that? I mean, I think if I mean, he’d been with the team for 10 years and had done I mean, they had been, if you look back to the 2022 season when they won the World Series, they were the least injured team in baseball. Like, that is part of the reason that they won the 2022 World Series is quite frankly that they stayed upright. They were really good, don’t get me wrong, but if you go back and look at that team, that was the least injured team in baseball that year. So, it’s weird. Like, first of all, I want to say this. Like, I’m not a doctor. I I’m not in medicine. I don’t know what Right. I don’t know what the return to play procedure entails. All I know is that it had been it had been ridiculed by the guy running the team three years ago that said, “We need to look at this.” And it never was looked at. Um, I also want to say like I don’t think Jeremiah Randall or anyone in Houston’s athletic training staff, medical staff, strength and conditioning staff, whomever you want to put this on, like I’m not I I don’t think they forgot how to practice medicine or forgot how to like rehab players, right? Um, they have a track record of success. Like I just told you, like in 2022, they were literally the least injured team in baseball. And I guess training staff of the year in 2017 for what it’s worth, right? They also won the series. Yeah. Like how much of that is luck? How much of that is them being good at their jobs? I am not qualified enough to answer that. All that to say like Jeremiah and his staff have done good work here. So what I say all that to mean like if they wanted him back, they probably would have renewed his contract. Like he he he had done exemplary work here for 10 years. Um, look, I’m not going to sit here and speculate as to why this happened as to, and certainly it’s unfair to paint it as Jeremiah Randall is gone and now the Astros are going to get their guys healthier and get them back healthier and all injuries are going to be prevented. All guys are going to spend the minimum time on the IIL and this is going to end. Like, that’s unfair to Jeremiah. That’s unfair to anyone listening. Um, but as I kind of wrote consistently throughout the season, like even though I’m probably not the most I’m not qualified to like talk about medicine or something, like it is clear it was clear that something was wrong. Like this wasn’t happening elsewhere where like you had two very well-known players this season and Alvarez and Jake Myers that had very public setbacks. One of which was then said, “Oh, we didn’t image him enough.” When that’s just like a basic fundamental breakdown in rehabbing guys. And then last year you had the Kyle Tucker situation as well. Like I look, I don’t cover every team. I’m not in depth with 29 other teams, but usually when that kind of stuff happens, it rises to the level of news. That ain’t happening elsewhere, and it’s not happening to that um it’s not happening that frequently elsewhere. So, it was clear that something was off. I’m not qualified enough to tell you what it is, but it’s clear that the Astros thought a new voice, a new set of eyes, a new perspective. And I know we’ll get into more of this maybe as we talk about the other guys that aren’t coming back, but Jeremiah Randle had been with the team since 2015. Alex Centronone and Troy Snicker had been the hitting coaches since 2019, but had both been in the organization way before that as well. Michael Collins had been with the team since 2000. These are a lot of guys that have been around for a long time. So, not only maybe just with Jeremiah, but with all of these guys, like I took it maybe more to be do they need just like a different set of eyes? Do they need a fresh voice? Do they need a fresh perspective on things? Because, and I’m not at all sitting here saying that guys that people got complacent or that people got comfortable. I don’t think that’s the case at all. But when you when you have guys when you have the same group of people that has been around for as long as all these people have been around like sometimes the message gets stale. Sometimes the stuff you don’t maybe get the step back and get the 10,000 foot view like you would if you have someone from another organization or someone from outside come in. So I think that is maybe the more pertinent discussion topic than just looking at oh the Astros had 28 guys on the injured list. They’re the most injured team in baseball, so they’re going to fire their train. Some bad luck on that front to what you are saying. You’re right with Jeremiah Randall. There was some success. But I’ll also say this, too. As someone who has a friend who has worked not at the highest level of sports, but as a trainer, he actually asked me questions. I didn’t know he was aware of all the weird stuff that was going on with the Astros training staff. So, I’m sure he was talking about that with perhaps some of his friends in the industry. For whatever it’s worth, what you mentioned, 28 injuries, 18 at one point, this is something that gets super highlighted when it looks bad because of all of the other things that are going on. And I would imagine that it had to in some way affect whether or not the Astros wanted to bring him back. to what you were saying earlier though, you’re right in that you can’t really predict going forward how this is going to help. I do think that injuries are largely flukeish across all sports. So, we’ll see what happens with the next group. I definitely imagine for Astros fans, it’s pretty satisfying to see somebody get got whether this is right or not right. And I think many could argue it’s not right because of all these injury issues that they had. And I imagine that’s perhaps in the back of Jim Crane’s mind when he also chose to not renew his contract. You know, I I think from Jim Crane’s perspective, and I mentioned I mentioned this on my pod during the season. I think I even wrote it in one place like I think Jim Crane has to view it from like like these are his and you I hate viewing baseball players like this. I hate viewing athletes like this. But at the end of the day, this is a business and some of Jim Crane’s most valuable assets were not being utilized. Like Jordan Alvarez is one of their highest paid players and he played 48 games. Like Jeremy Pñena is one of his most valuable assets and he missed two months. Now he got hit in the he got hit in the ribs. Like it’s not that’s not the trainer’s fault, but like I think when I I think as he took a long view of it, like that has to enter his mind too. like how much money, how much value, how much of what I am paying is sitting on the injury list not able to be utilized and that is in turn affecting the team’s play that’s in turn affecting whether the team can get into the playoffs where the revenue is higher where the gate is higher where you get more playoff games you get playoff revenue things like that so I mean there’s a big macro like business sense to this too that I I mean there’s few businessmen men in the world that don’t think like that, right? Like, yeah, Jim Crane didn’t get to where he’s at by like not thinking like that. And he’s not alone. Like, I think a lot of, you know, very rich people would maybe consider it that way, too. So, I I I kind of thought maybe he looked at it from that perspective as well, just like how can I get my most valuable how can I get the best return on my investment from my most valuable assets? and he saw this year that a lot of his most valuable assets were too often on the sidelines and didn’t give him a return on that investment. One of the other big moves made today, the Astros moved on from hitting coach Alex Cronone. They framed it as parting ways. This is to what you were saying a little bit ago, a guy who has been with the Astros for a very long time. He was a translator at one point. He worked his way up. Very curious about the locker room, excuse me, the clubhouse side of things. Was not bringing him back about what you were mentioning a little bit earlier, stagnation or was it, as you outlined in your piece in the Athletic about a week ago or so, maybe 10 days ago or so, talking about the Astros lack of patience at the plate. the numbers I remember rather staggering going into the year. I think Espatada had said that he wants to see and and Dana Brown as well. He wants to see the team see more pitches to be a little bit more patient, but then at the end of the year, only the Rockies chased out of the strike zone more than the Astros. [ __ ] Rockies. And only the A’s and Pirates averaged fewer pitches per plate appearance. So, was it because of an inability to execute Dana Brown’s plan or is it more about stagnation in your mind? Well, I want to say first of all, the A’s are a pretty good lineup. So, the A’s have the A’s showed you that you can like see not a ton of pitches and still hit the crap out of the ball. Like Nick Herz is really good. Serverstrom, Jacob Wilson, like they’ve got a good lineup. So, like it just goes to show you like you can be a good lineup and be like aggressive. like it it the two things don’t always like have to go together that like aggressive lineups are bad lineups but anyway um yeah like getting and again Centronone and Troy Snicker were both in the same situation as Jeremiah Randall they had their contracts expired after this season and were not renewed um from the beginning well not from the beginning from from when it became pretty clear that um you know they weren’t going to make the playoffs and that the offense was going to have to be audited this off season My whole thought had been that Dana Brown had to answer a a a pretty straightforward question like was this a personnel issue or was it a philosophy issue? And I’m going to get like here’s why to me it is at least somewhat of a personnel issue. So the Astros have six guys that were in the top fif that were within the top 50 in the sport in swing rate. Those six guys are Jeremy Pñena, Yiner Diaz, Christian Walker, Cam Smith, Mauricio Duban, and Jose Altuve. Diaz, Duban, Altuveet, and Pñena all chased outside the strike zone at least 35% of the time. Christian Walker chased outside of the strike zone 28% of the time, which is about a 5% increase from where he was last year. So remember all those names I just said, Walker, Altuve, Pñena, Smith, and Diaz. all in those numbers. They took the five most played appearances on the team this year at some point. Like when you have all these guys that are the same offensive profile, I’m not really sure what you expect. Like it is as just as much as it look by what they did today by not retaining these two guys, they have acknowledged that it’s at least somewhat of a messaging and philosophy problem and they are going to work to correct that with someone else. But as I have continued to reiterate, anytime I get asked about this, like just getting rid of these two guys is not going to solve what’s going on here. This is more of a personnel issue in my opinion. Like I think they need to take a deep dive and look at the construction of their roster and what they have because they have a lot of guys that are just the same profile, the the same offensive profile. Now like let’s not let’s not forget Iso Paradus missed a good bit of this season. He saw the most pitches per plate appearance of any guy in baseball last year. That’s part of the reason they got him in the Tucker trade. They wanted him for that reason. Jordan Alvarez usually doesn’t chase outside the strike zone. Usually sees a good bit of pitches, not as many as Paradus, but could have helped. He only played 48 games. Let’s also not forget Dana Brown traded Kyle Tucker last winter and Alex Bregman signed with the Red Sox. Alex Bregman, notoriously patient hitter, does not chase outside the strike zone. Kyle Tucker, same way. So, I’m not really sure what they expect. Like, they entered the season knowing that they had a diminished lineup from what they had in 2024. And it played out that way. Uh, they had the same a lot of the same hitters, the same style of hitters were getting the most played appearances, and it bore out the way you would think it would. So, I struggle to like place that blame entirely on the hitting coaches only because like it’s also kind of misguided to what a hitting coach does. Like look man, like if you think Troy Snicker and Alex Cronone weren’t telling Yiner Diaz like daily, hey, don’t swing outside the strike zone, like duh, of course they were. Like, but it’s one thing to tell him, it’s another thing for them to do it. Like, they can’t take the at bats for them. But it’s pretty clear that like and again I go back to what I started with like I think it can be beneficial for just a different voice, a different outlook, a different way of communicating things to these guys because when you’ve had the same the same coaches, the same style, the same messaging for as long as they have both been there, you know, maybe it does wear maybe it does kind of go in one ear and out the other at times. And I’m not saying that that happened here. And look, I’m here to tell you too, the clubhouse loved both of those guys. Yeah, that I mean that’s the one of the things I wanted to ask about because I know you had highlighted that Carlos Kareah and Cron had been having conversations before Korea returned and Cron already had laid out, hey, here’s what I think you should work on with your swing. And I mean, Kareah when he joined the Astros, his numbers went way up from where they were in Minnesota. Yeah. And look, this is not it’s not it’s not abnormal, right? like in in football or like any sport like when a coach gets fired like or not retained whatever you however you want to say it um players are usually upset. Players oftentimes like their coaches like and if a player doesn’t like their coaches or doesn’t like the people around them then that manifests itself way before now. So yeah, players are they grew to like these two guys and they’re probably not thrilled. But I guess I would also say like if they didn’t want that to happen, play better. Like I mean I mean at the like I I can’t sit here and like just pile it all on the hitting coaches. Just in the same way of like I don’t think them hiring two new hitting coaches this off seasonason is going to all of a sudden make this offense the best lineup in baseball next year. Maybe it will. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll look stupid. Maybe Jose Altuve will have a George Springeresque like renaissance. Christian Walker the same thing. Yordon stays healthy the whole year. Herus stays healthy the whole year and and maybe they have a great offense next year. I I don’t know. But I just have trouble putting everything that happened in 2025 with the offense on the coaches. It is look and look when you get to that level, when you make that salary, when you get that title, part of it is it falls back on you. Like that’s just what you sign up for when you get into coaching falls back on you. But I don’t think it is the quick fix and just the complete cure all that fans think it’ll be. Before we get into potential replacements, probably the biggest news through all of this, at least for baseball casuals like myself, Joe Espatada returns on the final year of his contract, three years. Dana Brown returns on the final year of his contract, four years. You mentioned stagnation a little bit earlier. Joe Spatada has been here a very long time. Personally, I think that he did a really good job navigating the very many issues, injuries, specifically that the Astros had to deal with this year to have this team within arms reach of still winning the American League West again. And I would say the same for Dana Brown, who makes that trade in the offseason, which yeah, you miss Kyle Tucker for sure, but you like what you see early on from Cam Smith. Isach Perez seems to be a very welcome addition. Are those two who will be here next year guys that you imagine will be sticking with the Astros long term? I mean, as far as I know, neither of them got anything extended to their contract. Like, they are entering this season as lame ducks. And to me, that would signal at least some uncertainty as to whether they’re the long-term answers because I think if Jim Crane believed both of these guys are the long-term answers, they would have gotten a couple years tacked on. Um, you know, I wonder how hard will it be difficult for Joe Aspotted to go lure good hitting coaches with knowing that he has one year left on his deal or this is the last year of his deal. Like look, I mean, there’s only a certain amount of major league hitting coach jobs open. Like he’s going to find guys that’ll be able to take him, but like he’s going in, you know, with one hand kind of tied behind his back because these guys have livelihoods. They have families. They want to know like, hey, if I take this job, like, am I going to is this going to be a 10-month thing and then we’re all getting canned if we don’t make the playoffs? Like, um, you know, I I think that’s a very valid question. I I think it’s a valid question as to whether they believe these two are the long-term answers because they can frame it however they want to frame it, and they they’ll do their best to do their damage control and all that. Their fates were uncertain until about three days ago. Like when they got on the Deis for that end of season press conference, neither of those two knew their fates 100%. I I can say that with on pretty good authority. And I remember you had written in the article that it was a rather awkward press conference. It was because look if Dana would have if Dana knew his like you Dana is as straight shooting and as candid and as from the hip guy like he tells the truth man like when I asked him like have you been given assurances that you will be the GM of the Astros going forward like he didn’t say yes he said like he said I expect to be well and then you know we’re asking him on the Sunday in Los Angeles on the final regular season game we’re asking him about go a spat and all he’s saying is well he’s under contract. Well that’s not a yes that’s just a he’s under contract like and I think we both know what that’s alluding to right like I’m not sure that was his decision to make. I think it was Jim Crane’s decision to make and so you know I think it it certainly puts a lot of pressure on this upcoming season. Um, you know, it puts it like if they make the if they miss the playoffs again, are they cleaning house even more? Or if they make the playoffs and let’s say they lose like a hard-fought series to whatever team they come up against in the ALBS and they fall a little bit short, is that clean out? Like I don’t know, but like it certainly puts a microscope on these two guys going into this season. And I wonder how it’s going to affect, you know, maybe they the way they approach things. Is Dana going to be more aggressive with some of his moves? Is Joe going to manage, you know, with a little more urgency just knowing that they work for an owner that expects a lot? He is an aggressive owner that expects a lot. He, you know, I’ll never forget James Click went on the radio once. He went on the flagship here for one of his weekly hits and I remember he got asked I don’t have the direct quote in front of me so I don’t want to misquote him but something to the effect of Sean Sean Salsbury was doing the interview and Sean asked him something to the effect of hey they had just either won the division or gotten over the 100 win threshold or something like it was in 22 when they were just destroying teams and he mentioned he goes yeah you know I mean but the first thing I got asked by Jim Crane is like when are we going to set the franchise win record is like no like he is constantly pushing for more. He is constantly a guy that wants more and part of that is the standard that’s been set here. You know, when you go to the ALCS seven years in a row, when you win three pennants, when you win two World Series, like um the standard is higher here than it is other places and Jim Crane adheres to that. to the lame duck contracts. What’s the precedent for that generally in baseball? I know in football it’s generally frowned upon. I think one of the more recent examples would be Mike McCarthy with the Dallas Cowboys. Does that happen a lot in baseball? Because you take a look at the Astros and a lot of I guess the moves and changes that have happened over the last couple of years. Technically, James Click, who seemingly was fired, was offered a one-year extension. All the guys that they are moving on from this off season, their contracts were expiring, so they were already, I guess, in that mode. Is this common in baseball? Um, I don’t know about in baseball, but it’s common with the Astros. Um, James Click and Dusty Baker worked the 2022 season technically as lane ducks. like that didn’t come out until late in the season when myself and some other people started reporting about the dysfunction between James Click and and Jim Crane and about how it was headed toward a divorce. But like they worked that whole season as lame ducks and Dusty’s kind of used I mean Dusty was making jokes about it like he’s used to it. He’s been I think he once said he’s like I’m the lamest duck that’s ever been. Like he he he did but you you remember too like he only got a one-year deal. like they won the World Series in 22 and he got a one-year deal to come back in 23 and no one really batted an eye because Dusty’s an older guy and he didn’t know how much longer he wanted to manage and it kind of made sense to go with him on a year-by-year basis. Um, but no, I mean like the precedent is here. Like those two guys worked on expiring contracts and it you didn’t really know how it was going to end up. they ended up winning the World Series and still didn’t save one of their jobs. So, um, with the Astros, it is that that’s that’s a it’s something that has happened before. And we just now know about it a lot earlier this time around because I it never really got talked about LA in 2022 because a they were winning so much like it didn’t really matter and like by the time it really started to boil up like that they were so deep into the season that Jim or whoever could deflect the questions by saying, “Oh, we’re focused on the playoffs. We’re focused on this is a distraction. We’re focused on like no now it’s going to be like this is going to be a question in spring training now.” like if Jim Crane talks to us in spring training or you know it’s going to be a question that Dana Brown faces you know every now and then it’s be a question that Joe Aspatada faces and you know if they get into the season and you know there’s they go on a they have a rough you know month or so and they’re teetering a little bit like you always have in the back of your mind well you don’t have a contract for next year it’ be really easy to just like if they want to make an inseason move to shake some stuff up like it’s there. So, it there are a lot more layers to this. It’s a fascinating kind of outlook for what’s happening going forward. Any replacement candidates for hitting coaches off the top of your head? I’m sure some people are going to be pushing for a Michael Brantley or Martine Maldonado, some of the old dogs. You want You want Martine Maldonado to be the hitting coach? The fe the fearless defensive leader of the Houston Astros. Yeah, he won them a championship. Um, I can look, the hidden coach is going to be someone that no one has ever heard of. Like, I can almost I’m not going to guarantee that something could happen to where they hire someone that maybe has some cache, but like Michael Brantley’s not going to be this team’s hitting coach. Why would he want to do that? Like, he he retired to spend time with his kids in Port St. Lucy. Do you think he wants to travel 125 nights a year and be the hitting coach? Like, it’s not like no. And also like I was talking about this on crush city territory earlier but like remember when Jeff Bagwell was the hitting coach and this is not a shot at Jeff Bagwell. This is like I’m making a point here. Um Jeff Bagwell was the team’s hitting coach in like the 2010s I think and it didn’t last very long because like Jeff Bagwell is so good and like most other major league players are not as good as him. And so it’s hard for people that are really good at this to tell less talented players, hey, just do it like this. Like I do it like this. Like I I can get with this pitch, no problem. And they’re like, you’re a Hall of Famer. Like I’m not a Hall of Famer. And I’m not saying my like Michael Brantley’s probably in the same boat. Like it’s like he was he hit 300 his whole career. Like there ain’t many 300 hitters just like laying around. Like it it I it will be a lot it will be someone that does not have a lot of name value. It does. It’s going to be someone that is not maybe front of mind for Ashers, but I I maybe I’m bad at this. I cannot even start to hazard guesses as to who like maybe replacements would be if you if they do go internal. I don’t know if they would. The the two names to keep an eye on would be Thomas Wit and Dan Hennegan. Dan Hennegan is like they just hired him I believe last year to be their overall like hitting coordinator. And if you Google Dan, if you’re watching this, go Google Dan Hennegan. He’s got a lot of like very advanced kind of hitting websites, some biomechanics stuff, like he is a very very wellthought of guy. And he was around the major league team toward the end of the season. Now, that’s not abnormal. Like when the ma when the minor league season ends, a lot of those coaches will come be around the big league team for the last couple. Dan Hedigan was one of them was around the team. So those would be the two internal guys. Maybe look at external. I have no idea. The other moves made, and we didn’t go in detail about them. Uh, hitting coach Troy Snicker out. My bad, not retained. Uh, catching coach Michael Collins, not retained. And assistant general manager Andrew Ball, not retained. I know that Ball, one of his jobs was overseeing sports medicine, and performance. So perhaps he’s a casualty of the Astros bad luck and weird return to play policy and poor communications on that side of things. anything of note with those other two names as far as going forward for this team? I was a little surprised to see Andrew Ball um be one of the guys because I’m going to tell you, I’ve had more calls today from people in the industry, from agents, from people in people with other teams that raved about Andrew Ball. like and the one thing I’ll tell you that his what he was in what he was indispensable for with Dana was and Dana has been forthright about this you know when Dana got hired from the Braves he was very much a scout he he still is he’s a scouting guy he was a lot on the player evaluation side on the scouting side of things when he got here like when you’re the head of baseball operations like there’s a lot of stuff you got to know like gotta know the rules you got to know roster limits roster rules how like something as easy as like, “Hey, this guy has this clause in his contract and we have to tell him by this.” Like a lot of housekeeping like nitty-gritty stuff that like you don’t have to worry about like when you’re on the scouting side or stuff like Dana just didn’t have to do that at any of his previous stops. That’s where Andrew Ball came in. He was the quote unquote rules guy. Like he was the guy that like was making roster moves. Now, Dana was the guy that said, “We’re going to call up this guy.” Or like, “We’re going to DFA this guy.” But like Andrew was the one that’s like was executing them and like helping like to, you know, do a tease, cross the eyes, do all the paperwork, do all like and he was kind of over like rules and deadlines and how to go about what things they could do and couldn’t do by the CBA. He was the CBA maestro of what they did. So, I look, I’m sure they have a lot of guys in their front office, and I know they do. They have a lot of guys in their front office that know how to do this stuff. Like, it’s not as if Andrew was the only guy that could read the CBA and that knew the rules, but he was pretty invaluable for Dana in that aspect. So, it kind of surprised me to see him caught up in it. But, um, again, they’ve got guys in there, I’m thinking like Anthony Catchion, Will Sharp, they’ve got guys in their front office that are that are very good at that as well that can maybe backfill that. But I was surprised just from that aspect to see Andrew uh to see Andrew part of the moves today. Big day for the Astro. Lot lot big day for the Astros. Lots of moves made. Now we figure out who they bring back. And I I would like to have you back on when actual moves are made. Expectation from Bravald is gone. I would imagine Hunter Brown, Brian Bray are going to get nice raises and arbitration. Mauricio Dubond status up in the air. for Raone Urius and also just the overall fit of the infield now that Carlos Koreah is here. Esso Perez, we’ll see if he’s back to 100% next season. At least he did get back at the end of the year. And Christian Walker, it’s a it’s a very crowded infield. So, I obviously know we’re going to have to wait and see with a lot of this stuff, but uh what are you hearing, I guess, on all of those fronts about what might happen over the next couple of months? Yeah, I don’t think they know yet. I think they had to do this stuff first. Like they had to get through of like what changes are we enacting like from a staff perspective. I I think this was like the first thing they had to get over. Like I think they’ve had preliminary discussions about what they want their roster to look like. I I think they’ve had preliminary discussions about we could do this, this, and this, but I don’t think they’ve done anything definite. Um, I think the first thing that they need to figure out, and this is going to sound kind of weird, they need to figure out what they’re going to do with Jos Tube. Um, he cannot play 155 games and take 600 play 600 and something played appearances as a 36 year old. Like, he did it last year at 35. They tried to give him as many DH days as possible. I’m not saying that that’s the sole reason he had his worst season since 2013, but they have got to find ways to um get him off his feet. And they’ve also got to find decide like where do we want to play this guy? Do we want to put him at second base at all? Do we want to platoon he and Alvarez in left field and leave second base open? Do we want to just DH him and make Alvarez almost the primary left fielder with Altuve sprinkling in a day or two every now and then? Once you figure out and because the whole thing is like if they want Jose Alou to play second base for a majority of the time then it really really constricts your infield. Then you’re like, “All right, you have Isach Paradis and he really has nowhere to play.” Um, you have Christian Walker who is at first base, a position that Paradis could play, but you don’t know what you’re going to do with him. And then you have Mauricio Dubana and Raone Urias, both of whom saw significant time at second base last year. So, I think once they figure out like what is Jose what what do we envision for Jose Altuve in 2026, then they can start to really really think about how they want to address some of these situations. I think it’s pretty obvious. You look at the arbitration estimates, um, Mauricio Duban and Ramon Urius combined are estimated to make $10.2 million. I don’t think they want to pay $10 million to two utility guys that are not going to play every day and that really are the same kind of player. U is probably a better offensive player, Dubon a better defender. So I think you look at those, one of those guys is probably a trade candidate. Um, and then they have to ask themselves, do they want to try Issach Paradis at second base? Uh, no one you talk to in baseball thinks he can handle that defensively. His range is not good. Um, he cannot move laterally very well. Um, maybe if they tell him like tomorrow, hey, you’re playing second base on opening day. You have the whole winter to figure it out. Maybe he gets better at it and they go that route or, you know, Paradis’s arb numbers right at $10 million. Um, you kind of wonder too, and he’s got two more years of control left, he’d probably get you a good bit in a trade. Like, do you dangle him in trades and do you hold on to Christian Walker, who I know no one wants to hear it, but had a better second half than I think he gets credit for. Like, really came back in the second half and played well. Um, they’re going to have to trim some payroll. Like, I don’t think Jim Crane wants to pay the luxury tax a third straight year. They’ve got some money coming off the books, but the ARB numbers are huge and they’re not gonna and they already need to go address the rotation. They probably need a reliever. They probably need they definitely are going to need a backup catcher. Like they’ve got needs that they need. So, you know, you start to ask yourself, can we offload Paradus’? Because if you offload Paradus, they’re taking on the entire 10 million or around 10 million of his salary. you dangle Christian Walker in a trade, you’re probably not going to find a team that’s going to take on the entirety of two years 40 million left. So, um there’s a lot of different ways they could go. Um but I think it starts with figuring out what Joseé Altuve’s role is and then after that everything falls into place. To what we were talking about a little bit earlier, you were mentioning contracts and Jim Crane probably wanting to see the guys that he’s paying a lot of money out there a lot. We’ll be interesting to see how many games he plays given that he is set to make $33 million this coming season. Yeah. Um, you know, I I wrote the story I wrote it in the uh the initial number I wrote was wrong, but I went back and changed it. Um, of those seven guys on guaranteed contracts coming back that made that are going to make around 170 million on the Astros payroll. They have seven guys. They have seven guys under guaranteed contracts coming back and it’s Kareah Altuve Alvarez McCullers Christian Javier Josh her and then I the seventh I’m blanking on the seventh but whatever those seven guys combined oh Walker Walker there there’s your seventh those seven guys combined to acrew four wins above replacement last year according to baseball reference and Koreah was responsible for 1.3 of it and he played in 50 games as an Astro. Um, if you have that much money in those guys and you’re not getting the production out of them, like it starts there. Like part of it like look, Alvarez missed almost the whole year. You keep him healthy, he’s going to produce like he’ll probably produce four war by himself. You keep him healthy. Hater was not available for the last two months of the year. He was brilliant before that. If they can keep him healthy the whole season, that changes the narrative. Christian Javier looked better as the season ended. Maybe a full healthy season, he’ll be better. But they have got to get production out of the guys they are paying to be well producing members of this team because if they don’t get that, they don’t have the farm system to overcome that. And they’re also probably not going to go spend lavishly in free agency to overcome that. They’ve they’ve got this money sunk in these guys. They’ve got to produce. didn’t mention Lance McCulla’s there. Not a lot of expectations for him next season. I mean, look, they need starting pitching. Like, their starting rotation as we sit here talking right now, the guys you can write in in pen is Hunter Brown and Christian Javier. That’s it. Spencer Ergetti ended Spencer Ergetti ended the season on the IIL with an elbow thing. They don’t think he’s going to need surgery, but who knows with this team. You just watch this team bank on guys coming back from injury to help them, and it didn’t work. Um he’s look he’s going to come to camp. He’s going to battle for he’s going to be given every opportunity to win a rotation. He’s making $17 million. Like you hope if you’re an Astros fan, you hope with a full off season of health, which he has not had in a very long time. And you just kind of hope with that normaly maybe he gets a little bit of VO back. He’s not going to be throwing 97 anymore, but if he can sit 92 to 94 consistently and the command gets a little better and he can, you know, work on some stuff, like he’s going to be given every opportunity to win a rotation spot. And look, if he comes in and doesn’t perform, they’re not just going to hand it to him. But they need starting pitching. Like they need every amount of starting pitching depth they can get and he counts toward that. He is Chandler Rome for all Astros offseason news you can handle. Make sure that you are subscribed to the athletic so you can read what he’s got to say and also make sure you’re listening to the Crush City Territory podcast which is the best Astros podcast that there is. Chandler, thank you so much for joining me and let’s do this again when some other Astro [ __ ] goes down. Hopefully hopefully you won’t have recorded a podcast like five seconds before [ __ ] hits the fan. We did this whole thing and I didn’t know I could curse. Yeah. [ __ ] I should have cursed. There we go. All right. Well, see the first You gotta get You gotta get me back. You gotta get me back so I can use some more [ __ ] profanity. H nice.

Chandler Rome (@TheAthletic & @CrushCityTerritoryPod) & I talked about the Astros parting ways with some key staff members, why they did it, what’s next this offseason, and more! #Astros #HoustonAstros #MLB #trending #targeted #fy #fyp #fypツ #fypシ゚viral #fypage #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #foryou #foryoupage #foryourpage #fypviralシ
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