Concerning Astros injury could make Blake Snell rumors hold even more water
Chandler Rome of The Athletic wrote an article with reasons why the Houston Astros make sense as a potential Blake Snell destination. Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, has been languishing on the free agent market all offseason and doesn't seem close to signing anywhere. For all we know, he's just waiting for a team out there to get desperate enough to meet his and agent Scott Boras' demands.
The Astros are normally a team that shies away from massive free agent contracts, especially for pitchers, but they've also been a team known to have tons of pitching depth. This season is an exception, however, with Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr., and Luis Garcia set to begin the year on the IL. Verlander shouldn't be out too long, but he's also 41 years old with an extensive injury history. McCullers and Garcia are expected to be out for a good portion of the season.
The last thing that the Astros wanted to see was another one of their starting pitchers get injured, yet that's exactly what happened. Jose Urquidy was removed from a minor league start on Friday with elbow pain. Elbow pain is the last injury you'd want a pitcher to be dealing with just 13 days before Opening Day.
José Urquidy pulled himself from his minor league game after 43 pitches with right elbow pain, Joe Espada said. Urquidy is being seen by team trainers now.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) March 15, 2024
Jose Urquidy injury could be what gets the Astros to make big push for Blake Snell
An Urquidy injury could be big trouble for the Astros. The rotation can still be decent with Framber Valdez and Christian Javier leading the way, but an Urquidy injury would presumably force one of Brandon Bielak or Ronel Blanco into the Opening Day rotation. That's just not what any World Series contender wants.
If Urquidy has to miss substantial time, it'll be hard to envision the Astros passing on the opportunity to go out and sign Blake Snell. A Snell deal would be costly in terms of dollars, but at this point of the offseason might not cost as many years as they would've expected at first.
When healthy, a rotation consisting of Verlander, Snell, Valdez, Javier, and McCullers would be pretty impossible to beat. For the Astros to get to that near-unbeatable point, they might need a guy like Snell to help them tread water as the injuries continue to pile up.
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