The Astros have agreed a contract with righty Jake Odorizzi, Reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal is a two-year deal with a player option for the 2023 season. Odorizzi is represented by Excel Sports Management.
Reports surfaced yesterday about Houston’s interest in Odorizzi, which of course seemed Framber Valdez runs the risk of missing the entire 2021 season, after sustaining a broken ring finger on his throwing hand. While nothing has yet been decided on Valdez’s status, Odorizzi’s addition will help boost an Astros rotation, which also includes Zack Greinke, Jose Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr., en Cristian Javier. More inexperienced options like Luis Garcia and Brandon Bielak will now project as a Triple-A depth rather than appeal to make an immediate contribution at the major league level.
Odorizzi does not quite fit the Astros’ usual model for acquiring a pitch, as he does not have the great turning speed that Houston has often favored over the past few years. It could be that the need to replace Valdez has put Odorizzi on the team radar, and the Astros GM James Click is very familiar with Odorizzi from their time together in the Rays organization. Houston will get a veteran arm eating a record of innings, but in 2020 Odorizzi pitched only 13 2/3 frames with the twins due to a series of minor injuries.
Bladder problems, a rib disease and a line ride in the chest led to three separate injured list pieces for Odorizzi, who had a fairly successful office in Minnesota. Odorizzi posted a 4.01 ERA and an above-average 24.83K% over 323 1/3 overs in 2018-19, preferring to return to the Twin Cities in 2020 after accepting the team’s $ 17.8MM qualifying offer.
This decision to bet on itself did not quite work out, as a more typical Odorizzi season in 2020 would likely have resulted in a longer and more lucrative deal for the grinder (who turns 31 later this month). As Odorizzi took control of his fate for the 2023 season, he finally received the three-year contract he had hoped for for much of the winter, although it took him almost a week to finally terminate the contract.
After exceeding the competitive balance tax threshold in 2020, the Astros are again fairly close to the line, with a projected tax number of $ 200.7MM before the cost of Odorizzi’s transaction is added. With the inclusion of the player option, Houston can keep a way to stay below the $ 210MM threshold, but even if the Astros end up above the limit, they will have to fall below the $ 210MM mark all season and raise taxes. avoid. account as a two-time payer.
The Astros’ greater concern about the luxury tax, rather than paying extra dollars, may be more related to the fines for the draft compensation to teams going over the CBT, as Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic recently remarked. With McCullers, Carlos Correa, and possibly Justin Verlander all in line to receive qualifying offers next winter, the Astros may be planning to reload their farming system with extra compensatory choices if these players all reject a QO and sign elsewhere. Houston will also have to give up a higher amount of draft and international sign-up bonus capital for the signing of a free agent who rejects a QO from another club.
MLBTR ranked Odorizzi in 11th place on our list of the top 50 free agencies that were out of season, predicting him for a $ 39 million three-year deal. The Twins, Giants, Angels, Red Sox, Cardinals, Mets, Phillies and Blue Jays were one of the many teams that had some interest in Odorizzi during the off-season, with clubs joining and leaving the hunt , depending on other transactions. .
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