Discussing the Upcoming Winter Meetings

This off-season has definitely been moving faster than last years’, but next week is the Winter Meetings where all of the GM’s, Owners, Agents, and others involved in baseball gather in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for a Monday – Thursday marathon of baseball deals. This is usually the busiest time of year for Free Agent signings, trades and rumors, etc.

What are the Winter Meetings?

According to Wikipedia, the first winter meeting was hosted in 1876, but became an annual event since 1901. It obviously has evolved greatly since that time, and with technology being the way it is, there has been somewhat of a shift away from the Meetings as the timeline when every deal gets done.

MiLB.com has a schedule of the events - which includes some really interesting ones such as:

MiLB.com

“Banquet

This annual event features the presentation of some of baseball’s most prestigious awards, honoring outstanding clubs and individuals from the industry. Awards include the King of Baseball, John H. Johnson President’s Award, Larry MacPhail Award, Warren Giles Award, Sheldon “Chief” Bender Award, Mike Coolbaugh Award, John Henry Moss Community Service Award and Charles K. Murphy Patriot Award.”

Did anyone else know that there was a “King of Baseball” award?

The item that’s scheduled that is always the most interesting to me is the Rule V draft, which we will continue to cover.

Astros Predictions

”We’re not going to start mortgaging our future to get incrementally better right now, because we have a pretty good team,” Luhnow said. “That being said, we have some free agents that came off of [our] team, and we have to figure out where those innings and at-bats are going to go. It’s going be some combination of our own guys and guys we have to trade or sign as free agents ourselves.”

I started looking online to see what was projected for the Astros, and any interesting discussions about the upcoming meeting, but really wanted to open it up to TheCrawfishBoxes to see what you guys would like to see.

Bleacher Report made predictions for all 30 teams – For the Astros, they predicted Charlie Morton for 1-year, $16 Million. This seems like a logical, and somewhat “safe” prediction.

Sports Illustrated’s take: ( )

“The Astros could potentially be in the conversation for the best starter on the market, Patrick Corbin. But there’s not a whole lot of depth out there behind him—though there’s certainly some, including names like Nathan Eovaldi and J.A. Happ, which could be on the table—and instead, a trade might be in play. Houston has had to dip into its farm system for deals in recent years, but there’s still enough there to make a splash, if desired. If Cleveland decides to go forward with putting up Corey Kluber or Carlos Carrasco, or if Arizona shows interest in moving Zack Greinke or Robbie Ray? The Astros could be right there. As for the catcher’s spot, they’ve been linked to J.T. Realmuto—which would solve their problems there, considering that he’s the best backstop available.”

MLB.com’s prediction: ( ) Nathan Eovaldi

Detroit Free Press: This was less of a prediction, but somewhat them searching for a match for the Tigers continued rebuild and sale.

“Castellanos’ market isn’t great, almost entirely because of his defensive ability in right field. Without the designated hitter, a National League team would have to take a leap of faith to acquire him, which almost halves the field. Still, his offensive ability is enough that a team should take a chance.

The Astros had interest in Castellanos last summer. They might represent the best fit: Castellanos could play left field in Houston, which counts as the most shallow in baseball.

They do also highlight a Matt Boyd trade, but I just don’t see the Astros pursuing that unless there’s something I missed from a precursory glance at his profile.

So tell us - what are your predictions? What would you like to see? Any players you’d like us to do an analysis on as we come up to the meetings.

Regardless, let’s hope for some early Christmas presents!

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports