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Astros offseason: Luhnow throws cold water on all our plans

No big free agents, no bullpen pieces til February and no Castro trades. Jeff Luhnow is like the fun police.

By David Coleman
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

You know what, Jeff Luhnow? Just stop ruining our offseason fun. We don't get to do much this winter. We just followed the team through a 111-loss season. So, when free agent or trade rumors hit, we go wild, projecting who the Astros might get, what contracts might look like and what impact it'd have on the roster.

This is our fun. This is also sad, but it's still fun.

And yet, Luhnow, in his infininte callousness, just dismissed days of articles and comments in one night. From Brian McTaggart:

"We definitely are going to think twice before making any big commitments that include losing a draft pick and/or committing a lot of dollars for a long period of time," Luhnow said. "Having said that, we're doing our own analysis on every free agent that's out there. There is a price at which we'd be interested in almost all of them.

"Whether or not that's the price that would transact, I don't know. There's some good players out there. Given the number of teams with needs, would we be likely to come away with one of the top guys? I can't handicap that. I think it's probably a long shot. But we're going to sign some guys that are going to help our club."

Great. No big free agents? Great. Oh, but it gets worse. We might not even see any bullpen signings until February. February! From Evan Drellich:

"I think you kind of wait for the dam to break, those first couple of signings to see where it's going to go," Luhnow said. "Some players and their representatives want to wait and see how the market develops before they commit. It's still early. Like every year, there'll be some good buys in the free-agent market, and sometimes those
buys are early. But a lot of times they're later, and the one thing I've always maintained is you don't judge an offseason on where you are on Dec. 15 or Jan. 15. You judge it by where you are on opening day."

Because things always come in threes, Luhnow also shot down any Jason Castro speculation as idle talk. Yes, we already said the same thing when we posted the "rumor" on Tuesday, but hearing it from Luhnow just killed the fun. Do you have to be so mean, Jeff Luhnow, with all your dream-crushing?

"That's probably due to the fact that catchers are in demand this offseason, and he's a good one," Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said Tuesday of others' interest in Castro. "He's penciled in my lineup for opening day and a long time to come. I've always said nobody's off limits. ... He's a good player. I'm not surprised that people would want to talk."

Next thing you know, Luhnow will be quoted as saying the Astros are NOT planning on signing a dinosaur this winter and things are going get pretty, pretty, pretty boring around here.

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