Astros: Arbitration Tendering Decisions TODAY

In the offseason outline we highlighted 11/18 is another decision day in the offseason.

Non-Tender Deadline for Pre-arb and Arb eligible players- if a player is not tendered they will become a free agent. Sometimes players will agree to a contract prior to this deadline.

So how does this impact the Astros?

The pre-Arb players will essentially be given their salary for 2023 season. All Pre-arb players should be back. This includes.

Luis Garcia

Chas McCormick

Bryan Abreu

Brandon Bielak

Jeremy Pena

Jake Meyers

J.J. Matijevic

Korey Lee

Yainer Diaz

David Hensley

Hunter Brown

Seth Martinez

The following players require a decision regarding being offered arbitration. I have attached the number Fangraphs.com Roster Resource page projects as each's arbitration salary in 2023. The roster resource folks get this data from the MLB Trade Rumors site and Matt Swartz’s arbitration projections.

I suspect that the Astros will offer all of these arbitration. They had an opportunity to leave them off the 40-man roster on 11/15 or to trade them by now. Since neither of those happened I think they will offer them arbitration.

You can see my answers. I would not offer Maton nor Taylor arbitration. The team has better options for the bullpen. I would need to know more about what Josh James's projected recovery is to make that call but I tend to lean yes because I still believe James has significant upside.

We shall what happens today and see if there are any surprises.

Update- 11/18

Chandler Rome is reporting that James will not be tendered. I think that gives us a view on the extent of his injuries. Ultimately this will clear a roster spot. It would appear the others will be tendered.

Per Brian McTaggart on Twitter @brianmctaggart Astros tendered contracts to eight of their nine arbitration-eligible players: IF/OF Mauricio Dubón, RHP Cristian Javier, RHP Phil Maton, RHP Ryne Stanek, LHP Blake Taylor, RF Kyle Tucker, RHP José Urquidy and LHP Framber Valdez. The one player non-tendered was RHP Josh James.

Per MLB Trade Rumors

The Astros will part ways with reliever Josh James, as Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports they’re expected to non-tender him tonight. He spent the entire 2022 campaign in the minors, and underwent flexor tendon surgery in October and is without a timetable to return.

I hope I am wrong. I hope Taylor has learned how to get out RHH (wOBA 0.340). I hope Phil Maton proves he is worth $2.5M at age 30 when he has NO options to be sent to AAA.

Let me know what you think.

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