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The list of arbitration eligible players on the Astros roster was lowered by two this afternoon. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com tweeted out the news today. First up was catcher Jason Castro.
Jason Castro has settled with the Astros to avoid arbitration
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) January 16, 2015
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Castro on getting $4 million from Astros: "It was right we thought we wanted to be and fit in with the market and all that."
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) January 16, 2015
Castro will get about a 60 percent raise over his 2014 salary of $2.45 million. Last season he hit .222/.286/.366 in what was a drop off from his all-star campaign in 2013, but provided solid defense behind the plate.
Almost immediately, the news about LH relief pitcher Tony Sipp followed.
Confirmed: Astros LHP Tony Sipp gets $2.4 million to avoid arbitration.
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) January 16, 2015
Sipp gets a big jump from his $500k salary of last season. After he was picked up in May when he was released from the Padres, he became one of the most reliable pieces of the Astros bullpen, and the team looks for him to continue that success into the 2015 season.
With these two agreements reached, the Astros now have three players remaining who are arbitration eligible; Hank Conger, Dexter Fowler and Marwin Gonzalez.
UPDATE
The team is busy today! Houston Chronicle's Evan Drellich confirmed via Twitter that the Astros have reached an agreement with recently acquired catcher Hank Conger.
Can confirm Hank Conger gets 1.075 mil, avoiding arbitration
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) January 16, 2015
Conger came over via trade with the Anaheim Angels in November, and barring any other transactions, is expected to back up starter Jason Castro. If you need to know anything else about Framerin' Hank, just look back a couple of months. I believe we had one or two posts concerning the trade.