If they had that much disposable cash, they would have re-signed Morton before Keuchel. The bottom line is that they thought neither would be worth a multi-year deal... and given both parties injury history, age-related regression, and where the Astros wanted to spend their money (Bregman extension, Verlander extension, possible Springer extension), they did not want to be paying for depreciating/aging pitching.
Former stros ranking among top 150 in fWAR among position players: 55. Laureano 98. JD Martinez 120. Marwin Gonzalez 123. Jason Castro 125. Dexter Fowler 146. Jon Villar 149. Robbie Grossman Top 150 pitchers: 3. C.F. Morton 38. Joe Musgrove 63. Josh Hader 72. Ken Giles 92. Trent Thornton 107. JA Happ 108. Jordan Lyles
If we would have resigned Morton then there's no guarantee that we'd have Miley and/or Brantley. Astros signed Brantley figuring Morton was gone. Besides, Morton got a nice contract and is close to his home. Either case, the Astros should have offered Morton the qualifying offer and not Keuchel.
Dan Straily has given up 7 HRs the past 2 games in under 4 innings of work. He has given up 22 Hrs this year in only 47.2 Innings (that's almost a HR every other inning) 14 games, 9.82 ERA in that 47.2 Innings.. BAA is .349
Morton would have happily accepted the qualifying offer... and then your previous scenario holds true.
Why not have both. I think we should have offered 3/45 or something. Next year we have one pitcher. Miley is FA and so is Cole. I don't think paying a pitcher 6/180 deal is a good idea.
Who says they didn't offer it? At the time, Keuchel was looking for a 5 year deal. By the time it was clear he wasn't going to get it, most teams moved on with their payroll... including the Astros. And when its all said and done, they basically will end up paying Verlander 4.5/$140 million or so...
Found this cool tidbit on Twitter. Posting it here because it has to do with Charlie Morton, and there's nowhere else to put it. (Edited to fix link)
Well it’s not current, but on the 7th anniversary thought I’d put it here instead of bumping something.