Wandy Rodriguez, Jose Valverde, Brandon Backe, Humberto Quintero and Geoff Geary.
The Astros did not tender a contract to:
Ty Wigginton, Reggie Abercrombie.
So don't expect the Astros to go hard after Sheets or Wolf, because they have their fifth starter in Backe (as previously speculated here on Astros County). That's a rotation of Roy, Hampton, Wandy, Moehler and Backe. Feels good, doesn't it?
It's ultimately not very surprising about Wigginton - I'm actually more surprised that Abercrombie didn't get a contract offer. Abercrombie never made more than $380,000. The idea, though, is to sign him to a minor league deal and invite him to Spring Training. Because nothing makes you feel good like being told that the job you were doing for as little as they could possibly legally pay you wasn't good enough, but they'd like you to sign at an even lower rate and make you earn the job back that you were already doing.
But Wigginton. What to make of Wigginton not getting an offer? Are they going to use the money Roy is willing to defer to sign a third-baseman? I've speculated that Easy Eddie is going to move Tejada to third and get someone to play short. Was $8 million too much to pay for a guy who hit .285 with 23 homers in 111 games? Keep in mind that means now the Astros traded Dan Wheeler for someone not worthy of giving $8 million to. I mean, sure, Wigginton looked like...
...a sand crab. But the dude can hit. Of Major League third basemen with more than 350 at-bats, Wiggs had the fifth highest slugging percentage. 9th in OBP.
Says Easy Eddie: "I told him we'd love to re-engage in conversations and get him back here," Wade said. "It's hard to cut him loose. He's a really good guy and a good player. It was a very professional conversation." The whole time you know he's thinking, "I wonder how good of friends he was with Shawn Chacon..."
And now if he signs with someone else (and he will sign with someone else), the Astros get two things: (1) Jack. (2) Crap.
