If you're in charge, do you let Gerrit Cole walk or pay him?

Peaks for elite pitchers rarely last longer than 4 years. If you sign Cole, it is to double down on a WS over next 2 seasons. Anything after that is complete gravy, and way too hard to predict if Cole will still be a Cy Young contender or a true No.1 at that time.

 

You can’t trade draft picks in baseball.

 

Love all the “trade Greinke” folks who will be saying “see ya Cole” as soon as Zack throws 7 scoreless innings tonight.

 

Keep all three top pitchers... I’d let a hitter go like Correa obviously

 

And how would you come up with the other 25-28 million needed to offset Cole's salary.

Plus we still need a catcher, and somebody will have to be in the bullpen.

 

Truthfully I don’t know... to give up Cole just sucks bad. I know our team is loaded and we just don’t have enough money to keep it all together.

 

If you just need figure out to keep your best player on the team. The team with the best player usually win the game.

 

Which is why the Angels have won all of those pennants since Trout started playing.... Baseball isn't basketball. A good team beats a meh team with two studs.

Given the Angels aren't paying their starters jack, I can't see Moreno not pushing a ridiculous offer at Cole. LOL at the idea of Cole taking a short deal to stay here. He has a titanic amount of leverage, will be able to easily get a 7 year deal from someone, and the money will be astronomical. Just the way it goes. Someone will give him 40+ a year. He's the best pitcher in baseball---sorry JV----and near single handedly willed the Astros past the Rays.

As for Greinke, I'd like it if he could be consistently good from game to game. Great would be, well, great, but I'd be happy with good. He was not good against the Rays, and I guess we'll see if he's good against the Yankees.

 

The Nationals are doing pretty well after letting Harper go and replacing him with ... no one. This isn't basketball.

 

350/375 was a bit facetious. That said, I do expect Cole to get an offer around/over the 270m mark and break the record for pitchers by a wide margin. The market for Cole is going to be bananas. The market has arguably never presented itself with the opportunity that Cole has in 2020. Cole is, as we all know, coming into free agency riding the most dominant pitching season in (2)+ decades. His metrics are off the charts, and his knowledge/approach is relatively unmatched as well. And he just turned 28 last month? Someone is going to buy the Astros pitching/JV kool-aid, and gamble that Cole won't age terribly (and gladly usurp any HOU knowledge that Cole can provide their organization).

Obviously Cole is a pitcher, so it's tough to compare his contract to the 300m, 325m, 330m, and 420m, that Machado, Stanton, Harper, and Trout all inked. I just think, all things considered, Cole is going to have a record-setting offer somewhere. The need for a TOR ace, and one as sure as Cole, has never been higher. Everybody needs him. NYY, PHI, LAD, LAA...By god I hope he stays here. Cmon brother!

 

The Astros should not only be signing Cole, but we should be vacuum sucking the talent from the other teams as well and sitting them on the bench with no intention of even playing them. We are in a position of power. Let's act like it and bully the competition into contrition.

 

You and Geay_Jay both made good points, but I am not taking about broken banks to keep him, but need figure out hardly to keep him. He is such great player, need trade others to build the around him. Of course, you don’t over pay him too much to prevent the team to be great.

 

I'm still pissed off from when we let Nolan Ryan walk.

 

Unless they're compensatory picks (we got one in the Cosart trade, used it on Daz Cameron, who was part of the JV deal).

The idea of trading Osuna is interesting. Expected to see a big jump in arbitration, great but not quite shutdown stuff. Still won't forgive him for stealing Cole of a Triple Crown (blew saves at CIN and MIL, would have given him 22 wins). James has been outstanding down the stretch outside that one outing against Oakland we shall not bring up. Pressly I believe is still not 100% but I'm confident he will be come next Spring. And maybe Luhnow can flip a gem in FA, or go after a guy like Will Smith. And of course there's the trade deadline. HIGHLY doubt it of course, but not opposed, and I'm sure a decent portion of the fanbase would love it though.

 

Strike two. Compensatory picks cannot be traded. Competitive balance picks can be traded.

 

If the Astros lose in the ALCS, lets be real here. We're going let Cole walk, trade reddick+yuli and most likely have a step back next year. This is our year to win and generate more revenue for us to spend more.

 

After seeing the hitting in the acls. We have more problems than just letting 1 pitcher go. Rather use that money to upgrade the offense.

 

The only place to upgrade the offense is catcher.

 

Scherzer , Verlander , Kershaw and pretty much every other superstar pitcher in their 30's disagree. You're even getting comeback stories like Morton with modern nutrition and the astros approach to pitching. Cole is a mentally sound guy who takes care of his body, he is gonna be good for a long time. Drop whoever you need to... whether it's Brantley, Greinke, Gurriel, Osuna or Reddick, but you resign the guy. Enough guys like Aledmys Diaz who can be had for cheap.

 

How many of the superstar pitchers in their 20's are also superstar pitchers in their 30's? How many of those superstar pitchers in their 30's were the de facto No.1 starter on a WS winning team? How many of those superstar pitcher's in their 30's willed their team to a playoff series win?

No doubt there are a few Lions of history in this category. By that is my point, there are very few. And they become legends.

If you're willing to take the chance you may be have pitcher past their prime on a giant contract in 2023-2027 for the possibility of multiple WS in a 5 year span, that is definitely a legitimate argument because you never know when franchises have these windows.

But to presume that Cole will be this good in 3 to 4 years is folly.