Houston Astros
Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole are both studs. Wade Miley has been good when healthy, but that’s about it, especially with Brad Peacock on the injured list. While Bumgarner would only be guaranteed to stay in Houston until the end of this year (if he waived his no-trade clause), that’s probably fine with Houston when looking at the contract statuses for the rest of its starters.
Verlander will be there past 2019, but we can’t say the same about Cole, who is a Scott Boras client (enough said). Miley only signed a one-year deal as well. So either way, Houston will once again be retooling the rotation this offseason.
Unless, of course, they’d prefer to pay a little more in prospects to acquire a starter with at least one more year of team control. That’s something they ended up doing with Cole, and that’s worked out quite nicely.
For the Astros, the question is more about what will get them deep into October for a third straight year, not necessarily what will help them get there. Even with the Oakland Athletics charging ahead, they’re still 7.5 games behind Houston in the AL West.
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