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Astros Report: Multiple Teams Interested In Scott Kazmir

By Brian K. Patterson

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It’s already that time again for the Houston Astros.

The Winter Meetings are set for tomorrow all the way through Thursday of this week as baseball’s top executives gather together to talk turkey.

During the season, a lot of communication is done by phone and e-mail but this is the largest single gathering of the who’s who of those who are running pro baseball and the perfect time for executives to meet face-to-face.

As expected, the Astros are going to be quite active as they make some tweaks to a roster that was just a heartbeat away from qualifying for the ALCS.

There will be all kinds of rumors that will be flying about this team but we’ll be waiting and watching to see if any of them actually pan out.

The Astros certainly have an idea of what they and want and what they need.

But I have no doubt the Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow knows the stark difference between the two.

By the way, has he hired an assistant yet?

To my knowledge, that position is still open — maybe he feels it’s not a high-priority right now at the moment.

But there’s a strong possibility that we’ll be losing one our guys that was in the starting rotation in 2015.

Whom would that be?

None other than Scott Kazmir.

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Kaz is being pursued by multiple teams with the Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s being the frontrunners.

The Los Angeles Dodgers also have interest in the lefty that did provide some considerable help during the Astros’ season.

Where he will end up will be anybody’s guess but it’s likely he won’t be back with the Astros.

ESPN’s Buster Olney confirmed that the Royals/Dodgers do have interest in him as well:

According to the San Francisco’s Susan Slusser, there is confirmation that Kaz is talking with the A’s, his former team that spent all of 2014 and part of 2015 before coming to H-Town.

Even Sean Doolittle, his former teammate, has been recruiting him while he was here.  Here’s what he had to say:

"“Oh, man, you can’t put the cart before the horse, but that gets me excited,” Doolittle said. “When we played Houston in September, we were all giving him our best sales pitch, laying it on thick. We would all love to see him back at the Coliseum, not just from a baseball standpoint but from a leadership standpoint.”"

With some estimating that Kazmir could fetch offers as much $18 million per season which is similar to the deal that Jeff Samardzija got with the San Francisco Giants, it’s all but certain that he’ll be making his grand exit stage left.

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The Astros have a few holes to plug and may be better served in putting their money elsewhere.

Kazmir was on fire with a 2.38 ERA shortly after the trade that sent minor-leaguers Daniel Mengden and Jacob Nottingham to the A’s in exchange for Kaz back July 23.

But he fell off a bit and finished the season with a 4.17 ERA by giving up a ton of runs down the stretch.

He was granted free agency back on Nov. 2, definitely demonstrating that the writing is on the wall.

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Kazmir, 31, went 2-6 and posted a 4.17 ERA with 54 strikes to 24 walks in 73.1 innings pitched through 13 starts. His 1.391 WHIP and his 5.19 FIP, in addition to his most of his numbers were quite a regression as far as what he had been putting up before the trade.

Now we just have to sit back and wonder who the Astros have planned to take his spot in the starting rotation.

It’ll be interesting — we’ll see.

Go ‘Stros.

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