You get what you pay for
Dad wasn't a GM, but he nailed this decision
It reminded me of my dad.
Weird how that happens when the Houston Astros General Manager Dana Brown is talking defense in center field and the organization’s hope that Jake Meyers is the answer.
Dad didn’t play centerfield and wasn’t a general manager, but he did impart this wisdom on a thickheaded, know-it-all all teen one day that’s stuck with me all these years: “You get what you pay for”.
I don’t remember the hunk of junk I bought that Dad was referring to, there were too many to recall them all, but I’ve generally lived by this advice since.
When the somewhat confusing statement from Brown came out in early December that Chas McCormick was an “everyday guy”, but the team wants to see what Meyers can do, I tried to make sense of it.
“We want to see what Meyers can do,” Brown said at the Opryland Resort and Convention Center. “The defense is pretty special. If he turns the corner with the bat, it’s a pretty good player.”
It makes sense. Kind of.
The Astros aren’t going to pay for a centerfielder. Or left fielder.
With Yordan Alvarez starting just 40 games in left field in 2023 and Michael Brantley no longer in the Astros plans, Houston needed a left fielder.
In simple terms, the Astros have made a choice. They’ve decided to hope Jake Meyers “turns the corner with the bat” instead of paying for a more proven option.
Enter McCormick who started 45 games in left last season and made 1 error in 405 innings and 248 chances.
That leaves a gaping hole in center field, where Chas started 51 games last season, for about 120 starts.
Enter Jake Meyers, who as Brown stated is a very good, probably elite defender in center.
He is not an elite bat.
Over three seasons Meyers has accumulated about a full season’s worth of at-bats (605) and is slashing .235/.296/.379 with 17 home runs and 76 RBI.
Meyers hits fastballs fairly well and struggles with everything else, finishing 2023 slashing .171/.201/.315 on breaking balls and .209/.145/.302 on offspeed pitches per baseballsavant.
I haven’t completed the 2024 projections, but my guess is that Meyers’ projection will come closer to his career slash line rather than his .260/.323/.438 line of his rookie season.
In simple terms, the Astros have made a choice. They’ve decided to hope Jake Meyers “turns the corner with the bat” instead of paying for a more proven option.
They may have evidence that is more likely to happen than not, I don’t know, and I recognize there are other factors, some likely coming from the owner’s suite, than just numbers on baseballsavant.
This post is a bit outside my wheelhouse. Less stats, more opinion. Please share your opinion and help direct future content.
This arrangement isn’t all bad as the Meyers/McCormick combo offers better defense and more power than a Dubon/McCormick combo in my mind and as we know the Astros love their defense.
But it feels like the Astros took the cheaper option and hope is not the best way to make decisions when you’re trying to win the World Series in arguably your last season of being competitive for a while.
To be clear, the article linked above said Meyers “will get a chance to be the everyday center fielder to begin the season”.
It did not hand Meyers the position indefinitely, so this arrangement is subject to change.
That said, just like when I was a kid, I hope I’m wrong, but my first instinct was to think “You get what you pay for.”
Good assessment of the "sitch", Marty! This, to me, feels so familiar...the 'Stros have always had to sort of "make do" and squeeze whatever they can out of their, admittedly (over the years....generally), talented system. They (still) can't compete, $-wise with the Yankees and Dodgers, et al, so we now have to be really careful in picking and choosing just which high-dollar FAs we go after....If Jake, Chas and/or Dubon were on LA or NY, they'd be jettisoned quickly in favor of the first multi-million $ name that popped up on the board.
As the philosopher said, "It is what it is." What I've enjoyed, in the decades-long past, is the emergence of the latest "heart-stealing star" of the 'Stros....the under-valued, talented guy who just happens to put it all together, and captures the hearts of the fans, while they maybe play, granted, over their heads to a degree....to a point the Yanks and Bums (for two) would never had allowed them!
While I (or other fans) may not "agree" with this approach, the franchise-long fan (like me....7 when the team was born) is more than used to, and even comfortable with it.