Sports Time Radio

Unfortunately for me there are times that it seems I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to sports. I just didn’t see any top baseball free agents signing new deals before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was finalized, but last week we saw Noah Syndergaard and Eduardo Rodriquez sign with teams and sure enough we had another top free agent starting pitcher sign a new deal.

The Houston Astros announced on Thursday that they’re bringing Justin Verlander back on a two deal $50 million dollar deal.

Verlander is coming off an arm injury that cost him all of the 2021 season and almost all of the 2020 season as he only pitched 6 innings that season, but don’t forget that when Verlander was healthy is 2019 he went 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA over 34 starts and won his second Cy Young award.

Verlander’s new contract will take him to the age of 40 and you have to start to wonder if this could be his last contract.

Verlander returning to the Astros starting rotation is a big piece of the puzzle as they try to get back to the World Series.

It’s unclear if the Astro will continue to look for starting pitching on the free agent market as they hope to have Verlander lead their staff with the returning and healthy Lance McCullers, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia and possibly Jose Urquidy following him. The Astros have multiple young starting pitchers in their minor league system; so it’s possible that one of them may show that they’re ready for the next step and grab one of the spots in Houston’s starting rotation next season. Even if that doesn’t turn out to be the case it looks like the Astro will at least be the favorite to win the American League West next season and that will allow them the opportunity to get themselves back into the World Series.

While there are teams adding free agents there are other teams that are making room on their 40- man rosters for their young players and to do that you have to let go of players that are currently on your 40-man roster. In a lot of cases it’s a player that we haven’t seen at the major league level, but in the case of the New York Yankees they designated three players who’s names you’ll recognize for assignment yesterday.

The Yankees will now have 10 days to trade or release Tyler Wade, Rougned Odor and Clint Frazier. In all likelihood all three of these players will end up being released and will be free t sign with any team.

Wade has spent parts of six seasons with the Yankees while Odor is a major league veteran having played with the Texas Rangers for six seasons before they released him last season and the Yankees picked him up. Out of these three players Frazier is probably the most interesting of them.

Frazier was the 5th pick in the 2013 draft by the Cleveland Indians. Frazier never played at the major league level for Cleveland as he was traded to the Yankees at the 2016 trade deadline with three other minor leaguers for Andrew Miller. Frazier debuted for the Yankees in the 2017 and even though he was considered a top prospect he was unable to claim a regular spot in the Yankees line up.

Frazier looked like he was going to finally find an everyday spot in the Yankees line up after hitting .267 in 2019 and 2020 after being allowed to get consistence at bats. Unfortunately for Frazier his 2021 season didn’t get off to a good start and found himself back in the minor leagues. Frazier played in 66 games for the Yankees and hit just .186 before being sent down. Now you’d think that would be the worst part of Frazier’s season, but it actually got worse for him.

After playing just 3 games in the minors Frazier developed recurring vertigo like symptoms. It’s unclear how other teams currently view Frazier, but he’s just 27 years old; so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if another team claims him even though he is still arbitration eligible.

Will have to wait and see what happens with Frazier as well as with Wade and Odor, but you have to think that they’ll all end up in spring training with a team when that time comes around.

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You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime