MLB Christmas Returns: Free Agents Teams Wish They Kept the Receipt For
By Jason Reed
Houston Astros: Josh Reddick
The Houston Astros have gone all out this off-season to bolster their offense. Houston added Brian McCann, Josh Reddick, Carlos Beltran, and Nori Aoki all within two months. Honestly, the moves don’t seem very wise as they are bringing in mostly old veterans who won’t be good for much longer. This won’t work in the long run for Houston–just look at the Yankees before this youth movement. Out of all of this moves however, I think the Astros will regret signing Josh Reddick more than the rest.
First of all, the Astros signed Reddick to a 4 year, $52 million dollar contract. That contract was the eighth-largest signed this off-season and the tenth largest in terms of annual salary. No disrespect to Reddick, but I don’t think he is worth twice as much as Wilson Ramos. Reddick has been a solid player over his eight year career, but his numbers in Los Angeles should be staggering. Sure, it is hard to transition into a pitcher-friendly ball park on a whole new club, but it wasn’t the same Josh Reddick.
Reddick slashed .258/.307/.335 in his time in Los Angeles. While that certainly isn’t the worst, with low power numbers and only nine RBI in 47 games it is not worth $52 million dollars. Nothing about Reddick suggests that he is worth the money that the Houston Astros gave him. What makes this deal worse than say the Beltran one is the Astros are stuck with him. Sure, they could trade him, but with no team option they effectively are taking a gamble. Like with Carlos Gomez this gamble will not pay out for the Astros.