Well today was a day, wasn't it? Lots of rumors and news as the GM Meetings start in Arizona, and the Astros are pretty active in them. Let's run them down:
*Jose Altuve won three awards at the Players Choice Awards tonight including MLB's Most Outstanding Player.
*Yesterday Dallas Keuchel won his 3rd straight Gold Glove award.
*Rob Manfred said they're in "the final ten yards" of the investigation into the Cardinals' breach of the Astros' Ground Control system. Manfred:
The time has come to put this one behind us. I am anxious to do that.
*Luhnow is willing to spend money and prospects on adding a couple of bats to the lineup. Luhnow:
The reality is, we need to add somebody to our lineup. We're losing a couple good players through free agency. We've got the wherewithal - with the prospects and money - to potentially add an impact piece. We're certainly going to be looking at it...
...We need to be smart about what we do. We don't want to mortgage the future to put it all in for this year. But we do feel like we have a chance to win, so we're going to make the investment we need to.
*To that point, Jon Paul Morosi wrote that the Astros could be interested in a trade for Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, noting the friendship between Altuve and Cabrera, who come from the same town in Venezuela. Cabrera is still owed $212m over the next seven seasons.
*In a piece about the possibility of the Yankees trading McCann, Edwin Encarnacion is looking at a 5yr/$125m deal.
*Morosi says the Astros are interested in McCann.
*The New York Daily News says that the Astros are "hot" for Carlos Beltran.
*Scott Boras doesn't expect any lingering issue with the health of Lance McCullers.
*Rob Manfred is optimistic the new Collective Bargaining Agreement will be passed by December 1.
*The people of Arlington are going to get a roof...and will be paying for it for a very long time.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
