Houston Astros: The What Ifs Following ALCS Loss to Boston

2. What Happens Now?

After the ALCS loss, the Houston Astros will have a number of decisions to make this offseason Some will be easy. Others will be more difficult. The team has seven key players, and yes they are all key to this team, that will be due to hit free agency. They include:

1. Dallas Keuchel
2. Marwin Gonzalez
3. Evan Gattis
4. Charlie Morton
5. Tony Sipp
6. Martin Maldonado

McCann also has a club option of $15 million for next season that would be paid in part by the New York Yankees. That is assuming that BMac doesn’t decide to hang up the cleats and retire, which is another possibility.

The first two on the list, Keuchel and Gonzalez, are both new clients of Scott Boras. Boras has a reputation of getting his players signed for the big bucks. Question is, is Jim Crane, Reid Ryan and Jeff Luhnow willing to fork over the dough to keep them? My guess is no to Keuchel, and a big maybe on Gonzalez given what he did during the postseason in 2018.

Sipp and Maldonado may be the easiest to part with. Sipp is still trying to figure out some command issues, while the passed balls from Maldonado in the series against Boston may not go over well with the front office. Odds are, they look to free agency for a lefty reliever and a starting catcher as their biggest priorities.

Then you have Gattis and Morton, who have both publicly expressed a desire to want to stay with the club. Both can be re-signed on the cheap, without even having to go for a full qualifying offer. Of the two, however, and it pains me to say this, Morton is the most likely to stay.

This offseason will certainly be a newsworthy one, for sure.