It\u2019s starting to look like none of the parties will have a choice.<\/p>\n
The Astros have a logjam in the infield, that isn\u2019t news.<\/p>\n
They have been open to discussions on both Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker, that also isn\u2019t news.<\/p>\n
However, we are now 6 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training and the Astros still don\u2019t have an answer for their logjam other than the idea of keeping both players on the main roster and having them find ways to share time and try to get them as many ABs as possible.<\/p>\n
Neither player is going to be happy with that kind of arrangement. They may not have a choice.<\/p>\n
Astros GM Dana Brown doesn\u2019t want to move Paredes, as he likes Paredes hitter profile (especially at Daikin Park). He also doesn\u2019t want to eat a bunch of money for Christian Walker to play somewhere else and get nothing in return (previous reports have stated there has been little interest in Walker on the trade market).<\/p>\n
Where does that leave the team and the players? In a big holding pattern.<\/p>\n
Brown has to do what is in the best interest of the franchise, and that isn\u2019t giving away a strong offensive profile player nor is it writing checks for guys not to play here.<\/p>\n
Walker led the team in HR and RBI last season, and is a Gold Glove caliber defender. He posted a second half OPS of .799, which was the best on the team for those who played the entire second half. It\u2019s not like Walker stinks, or is unplayable. He had a bad first half (possibly influenced by an oblique injury suffered late in Spring Training), he isn\u2019t a bad player.<\/p>\n
That bad first half, however, has his value at it\u2019s lowest on the trade market, making his contract appear bloated to other teams (and maybe the Astros as well). It is not farfetched to think a return to form is possible or that his second half can be translated to a full season.<\/p>\n
A timeshare is different than a platoon. Platoons are based on righty\/lefty batters and matchups. A timeshare doesn\u2019t necessarily include those elements, it\u2019s simply there aren\u2019t enough spots in the lineup and both guys need ABs.<\/p>\n
A timeshare of Walker and Paredes is not necessarily going to have good results, though it could. Maybe the extra time off helps Walker stay stronger as an older player (though that didn\u2019t seem to be an issue last season) and maybe the extra time off (especially early in the season) allows Paredes and the team to make sure he is fully recovered from the torn hamstring he suffered last season that he valiantly tried to play through at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The Astros also have other players on the infield who have had injury issues. Jose Altuve will be 36 and has had injury issues in the past, had an injury he played through at the end of the year, and manager Joe Espada lamented the fact he had to play Altuve 155 games last season. Altuve does need some more time off, to keep him both healthy and productive.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Pena suffered a fractured rib from a HBP and an oblique strain that cost him over a month of the season, and if the oblique had not happened at the very end of the year could have easily resulted in more missed time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure I don\u2019t have to tell an Astros fan (or Twins fan or Mets fan or Giants fan) about Carlos Correa\u2019s injury history.<\/p>\n
It is very possible that the Astros have enough injuries that they need to play musical chairs with their lineup and having both Walker and Paredes to fill those chairs would be paramount in overcoming those injuries and maintaining a viable offense.<\/p>\n
Still, it is a situation neither player will want.<\/p>\n
Dana Brown may find the trade market to open up during Spring Training as teams deal with injuries or performances they deem untenable. This could on through late in Spring Training. It could go on through the season. Brown can\u2019t force the issue and make a below value move just to make a move, though.<\/p>\n
For now, everyone just has to wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s starting to look like none of the parties will have a choice. The Astros have a logjam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,61378,5,139,54,64940,65265,32124,36802,3211,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-556391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-astros-hot-stove","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-astros","13":"tag-houston-astros-analysis","14":"tag-houston-astros-discussion","15":"tag-houston-astros-roster","16":"tag-houston-astros-rumors","17":"tag-houstonastros","18":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116019368271651101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}