Carlos Lee's name has been the one most frequently mentioned in Astros trade rumors recently, but Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports cautions not to forget about Wandy Rodriguez. Morosi adds that the Red Sox have been keeping tabs on the Houston lefty (Twitter links).
Boston would prefer to sign a free agent, according to Morosi, and have been linked to Roy Oswalt. The Red Sox traded Marco Scutaro to the Rockies yesterday, which freed up $6MM in payroll. That type of money is almost enough to accommodate Oswalt's one-year asking price, but not to accommodate Rodriguez's $10MM salary. He's also guaranteed a $13MM salary in 2013.
Rodriguez, 33, has a 3.36 ERA over the last three seasons in 591 2/3 innings with an 8.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, and a 46% groundball rate. His K/9 has declined for three straight seasons however, while his BB/9 has increased each of those years. There's also the issue of Rodriguez's 2014 option; the Astros currently hold a $13MM club option on Rodriguez, but that becomes a player option if he's traded.
As a Yankee fan, I approve.
Why? Wandy would be an upgrade over any of the potential starters they’ve signed to minor league deals ect.
He would, but he wouldn’t be very good in that division. If that’s who they’d rather go after instead of Oswalt, that’s a mistake.
He’d likely be better than Hiroki Kuroda. The NL Central is more difficult to pitch in than the NL West.
That’s true, except Kuroda is still a better pitcher.
Maybe if you pretend that Kuroda’s stats don’t benefit from the NL West.
adjusted for park and league factors, last 3 years
kuroda 86 ERA- 92 FIP- 3.63 SIERA
wandy 85 ERA- 94 FIP- 3.68 SIERA
so their damn near identical
He’s older and pitches in the easiest division to pitch in and in a big pitcher’s park, but you’re not worried about him moving to Yankee stadium, yet Wandy, who pitches in a tougher division inside MMP with the Crawford Boxes and you think he’ll get knocked around? What?
I think Rodriguez would be a more stable and reliable choice, and a better one if the Astros eat enough salary. However, I have a hunch that Oswalt will be the pitcher that the Sox acquire.
As a sox fan I don’t. He’s a waste of money and there are better choices with a better price tag.
I don’t think the Astros are willing to eat enough of Wandy’s salary or take on enough salary in a trade to make this worthwhile for what the Red Sox are trying to do, stay under the Tax threshold.
Plain and simple, the Astros will be lucky if they are able to find any sort of suitor for Wandy before the 2013 trade deadline. He’s simply in line to make far too much money, and the Astros are far too unwilling to simply bite the bullet now and eat the salary. Maybe, when he’s half-way through his $13MM season, if he is pitching abover average still, the Astros will find a taker so long as they agree to take on half the remaining salary. Otherwise I just don’t see it. His style of pitching simply doesn’t fit for any of the bigger market teams that could afford him.
The real question is whether or not paying Wandy but holding on to him is doing the Astros more good than paying Wandy to play somewhere else. At what point does it move from Wandy being effetive but overpaid to Wandy blocking the development of the actual future of the franchise while getting paid?
What does 170 mil get you? nick punto at ss and holes in your rotation. Something doesnt seem right…
And A-Gon, Big Papi, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, etc…those players aren’t cheap.
big papi is a joke lol…
29HR 106RBI .309/.398/.554/.953
HAHA
l2 cotts?
lester, dustin, jacoby are all around 8mil each. Thats not exactly breaking the bank.
Big Papi isnt cheap and that is no one’s fault but your own.
Youkilis is making 12.5 this year. Good contract there guys lets see how many PA he can get…
The only contract that is really breaking your bank that is contributing is Agon. I mean lackey is costing you more than both ells and lester.
Actually for those of the Red Sox fans that say Oswalt is a better choice. BEing an Astro fan and seeing both of him and Wandy pitch a ton. I’d go with Wandy at this stage in their careers. Oswalt can not stay healthy at all and paying someone even $7 million for one year when he might not go more then 5-6 innings and might not make it to the playoffs with their budget restraints (wow saying that seems weird) does not seem wise.
At least Wandy has made it to the end of the season most years, he actually gives up less HR and his ground ball % is a lot higher then Oswalt too. That is normally good, but if the Sox don’t have a 2nd baseman and youk playing 3rd, might be bad in their case. Plus he is left handed which is always nice, and has never once been a distruption in a clubhouse which the Sox can also use.
The Sox have a 2nd basemen. SS is the question.
If the Red Sox do trade for Wandy, the Astros would probably be willing to include Angel Sanchez(whom the Sox traded to the Astros in 2010 for [Kevin] Cash) at no additional cost. Well, Brad Mills wouldn’t like it(he likes Angel a lot), but the Astros have already hired his potential replacement so he probably wouldn’t object too loudly.
They would throw Sanchez in the trade in a heartbeat, and might even have too if two players came over to the Astros that were on the 40 man roster (since their roster is full) They have Lowrie and the rule 5 pick who needs to stay on the 25 man staff, So Angel probably wont make the 25 man anyways. Then they have Villar in the minors who is a couple of years away.
That part was a joke. I don’t think the Sox want Sanchez back.
Actually I could see a deal for Wandy making sense for the Red Sox. Granted it’s a little more money then they probably want to spend but it does mean that come the end of the 2012 they won’t have the same problem they have this off season (some serious starting pitching issues). And with Dice K’s salary coming off their books at the end of the 2012 season their budget doesn’t really take that big of a hitonce you subtract what Dice K was costing them. At least in my opinion it makes more sense then the “band-aid” approach of signing Oswalt and his recent injury history to a 1 year deal and they have to go through the process all over again next off season.
Wandy being on the team for more than one year is a bad thing, not a good thing. There are plenty of much better starting pitching options on the market after 2012, so they don’t need a pitcher for more than one year.
Perfectly put.
Wandy at 1 year is more than enough with what is probably coming up next year and why they are interested in Oswalt.
Why in the world would they want to pay the guy 13m who has that type of stuff 13m next year and shoot themselves in the foot when Cain, Hamels, possibly even old Sox friend Sanchez is coming up?
It would make less sense than moving Scutaro in the 1st place.
I don’t know about “plenty” of better starting options. There are as of today probably 5 to 7 that you could say are better. But a couple of those have had health issues. There are a few others that are better but their current teams hold player option on them so I would not say call them “options” at this stage.
Let’s look at the 5 to 7 that I would consider better (it is obviously just my opinion):
Cole Hamels
Matt Cain
Zack Greinke
Anibal Sanchez
Colby Lewis (probably is better)
Kyle Lohse (possibly but he had health issues in 2009 and 2010)
Brandon McCarthy (has past health concerns though)
There is no guarantee that more then maybe 2 or 3 of the above list might make it to FA for the 2013 season. And if you think about it for at least Hamles, Cain and Greinke they probably would require 6 year contracts and salaries STARTING at $18 to 22MM depending on which one. Is that something the Sox would do? I don’t think so. But that’s just my opinion.
Then there are the pitchers that their current teams hold options on and in all likelihood will NOT be available:
Dan Haren
Ervin Santana
James Shields
5 to 7 is what I would call plenty, usually you have 1, maybe 2, of that quality pitcher on the market at once; 5-7 is almost unheard of.
What if they Added Dice K to the Deal for Wandy Rodriguiez to get a better Package for Wandy Rodriguiez? I mean then it would get Intresting..
The Deal would then get alittle more Prospect wise expensive
throw in Krawford and Lackey while youre at it since we’re playing the silly trade game
As an Astros fan who has watched Oswalt and Wandy the choice between them is easy: Wandy. He is a year younger than Oswalt and while he costs more than Oswalt, he started more games, pitched more innings and had a better record than Oswalt last year. Yes Wandy had a better record for the worst team in baseball then Oswalt did for one of the best teams. Maybe something like Ranaudo or Workman or something else with decent value could work in a trade here is Houston picks up a lot of the contract. Not too familiar with Boston farm so I dont know what they would offer.
Here’s one for everybody. While incredibly unlikely you could have a few things happen here:
Astro’s trade Wandy Rodriguez to the Red Sox + $4mm for newly acquired Mortensen,
Astro’s trade Carlos Lee to the Yankees for AJ Burnett + $4mm. Yankees ultimately save $10.5mm over the next two seasons. It would be an increase of $4mm to the 2012 payroll, which is essentially what they have to land a DH.
While the immediate reaction would be this doesn’t make sense, if you look at the numbers it actually does. Astro’s drop the $41.5mm ($23mm + $18.5mm) in salary with Wandy and Lee, add back $33mm for AJ Burnett = net savings $8.5mm + 1 minor league pitcher. The $4mm changing hands is essentially the Yankees sending that to the Sox, passing through the Astro’s. $8.5mm is a large chunk to unload for Houston and at the end of the day, AJ can still pitch and has been healthy.
Not necessarily saying this is the move the Red Sox want, it’s more a question of whether the Astro’s can pull something like this off.
If there a pitcher out there the Red Sox don’t covet?
It’s called doing your due diligence.
As an Astros fan (and more recently an Astros apologist) I differ from the other Astros posters. I think the Sox would be better off with Oswalt. The big question is how many games can he make it through. Even if you can get 3/4 of a season out of him, I would still take him over Rodriguez. You can get him on a one year deal vs the remaining years of Rodriguez. While Rodriguez relies on a curveball, which should be steady with age, I’m not too excited about him at 35/36 years old. Oswalt would likely cost the same for next year as the Astros would have to eat a good portion of Rodriguez’s contract. Sox wouldn’t have to give up any prospects, and Oswalt still had some brilliant games last year. Oswalt can still give you a few games of #1 stuff, but would be more like a #3. Rodriguez would be a #3 at best (and a #5 for the first half of the season with his slow starts).
“lulz at Wandy in AL East” Theo at 2011 trade deadline
“Lulz at Wandy in AL East” Ben Cherrington December 2011
“Lulz at Wandy in AL East” Chashman before trading for Pineda
“Wandy can contribute lets look into him” Cherrington today.
Funny how things change.
As an Astros fan, Oswalt in his prime hands down over Wandy, however Oswalt is in his decline, whereas Wandy is still solid. From a performance standpoint, Red Sox would be better off with Wandy, however not sure he is worth the $12M avg over 3 years vs Oswalt at $8M. But then again Oswalt may not last the entire season with his bad back.