Astros Crawfish Boil

Astros Crawfish Boil: December 13th, 2018

Start your morning with some of the best Astros links around

By CKuno Dec 13, 2018, 8:15am CST

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89th MLB All-Star Game, presented by Mastercard — So long, old friend

Astros News

According to Luhnow, the Astros are in the hunt for starting pitching at the winter meetings (Astros.com)
But not a lefty reliever, which isn’t near the top of the priorities list (Houston Chronicle)
They are also on the prowl for more offense this offseason (Texas Sports Nation)
Which could include Michael Brantley, who would table an important issue (House of Houston)
Expect Aledmys Diaz to preview his utility role during Spring Training (Houston Chronicle)
We’ll also probably see a fair amount of Forrest Whitley, but don’t worry about his 2019 workload (The Athletic, $$$)
Whitley will probably spend some time in AAA, so he should get to know the new skipper Michael Storey (Astros.com)
Bregman’s not about to wear a UH jersey, but he’s cool about it at least (CUT4)

Around the League

After a slow week there were a bunch of moves yesterday including Astros legend Charlie Morton, who landed a two-year deal with the Rays (Call to the Pen)
J.A. Happ will return to the Yankees for another two years in pinstripes (Bronx Pinstripes)
Get familiar with Lance Lynn, because we’ll be seeing him in Arlington over the next three years (InstaGraphs)
Reliever Joe Kelly will head to the West Coast as he inks a deal with the Dodgers (Bleacher Report)
Jeurys Familia goes in the opposite direction as the Mets bring him back for $30 million (New York Post)
In the game’s first ever Tanner-for-Tanner trade, Tanner Roark heads to the Reds for Tanner Rainey (ESPN)
And the Angels pick up Justin Bour on a one-year deal (MLB Trade Rumors)
Even with this rush of big names there’s been an active secondary market this winter as well, which is good for baseball (Yahoo Sports)
Bryce Harper is not as easy of a sell as a lot of people assumed he would be (Sports Illustrated)
Possibly because some execs don’t consider him a “winner” (CBS Sports)
Manny Machado’s preference is to join the Evil Empire (Sporting News)
There’s been a wave of Latino managers at the big league level (La Vida Baseball)
Charlie Morton will play for the Tampa Bay Rays, but how long will the Rays play for Tamp Bay? (Tampa Bay Times)