If Yusei Kikuchi and Justin Verlander depart from the Houston Astros, the front office will have to make some tough decisions about who to replace them with.
Fortunately, this isn’t the old Verlander, so if they lose him in free agency, it wouldn’t hurt as much as it did a few offseasons ago. Nonetheless, both players departing would be tough to replace, and they’d have to do as such if they want to compete moving forward.
The Astros will have an opportunity to add players this winter, and the expectation around Major League Baseball is for them to do as such.
Dana Brown hinted at being content with his current rotation, but his remarks were highly questionable.
For one, their pitching staff was banged up with injuries all year. Factor in that some of them could be dealing with those injuries at the start of the 2025 campaign, and it’s easy to see why they need to at least bring in one pitcher.
That’s where an arm like Max Fried could come into play.
Fried has been dominant throughout his career, and despite dealing with injuries, he looks to finally be healthy.
With his health improving, Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report predicted him to land a six-year, $168 million deal.
“There are some injury concerns surrounding Max Fried after he missed significant time in 2023 with a forearm strain, but even with that injury limiting him to only 14 starts that season, he has still been one of the most productive starters in baseball over the last five years. Since the start of the 2020 season when he put together a breakout performance and finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting, he has gone 54-25 with a 2.81 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 624 strikeouts in 659 innings… The six-year, $162 million deal Carlos Rodón signed with the New York Yankees looks like a reasonable comparison given his similar top-of-the-rotation upside, and Fried might be able to top that thanks to fewer injury red flags.”
Houston could be hesitant to give Fried this type of money because of his injury history. However, that’s the going rate if they want a top-of-the-line starting pitcher.
After throwing in just 14 games in 2023, he bounced back and posted a 3.25 ERA in 29 starts in 2024. Over the past four years, the left-hander has a 2.87 ERA.
Simply put, the Astros could use his services for more reasons than one.
