Houston Astros: 3 replacements for Justin Verlander
By Jake Oliver
No.2 Houston Astros sign former rival, Nathan Eovaldi
This would be another terrific signing by the champion Astros. Eovaldi is a flame-throwing starter that would add a ton of strikeout ability to their rotation. When healthy, he’s technically a strikeout master in recent years. Since 2019, he has had 420 strikeouts in 407.2 innings.
Last year, he had some injury issues, but still appeared in 20 games with 109.1 innings pitched, 103 strikeouts, and a 3.87 ERA. Throw him into the Astros pitching lab and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Eovaldi be another top-5 CY Young vote-getter.
The 33-year-old would be the perfect fit for the Astros rotation, providing a stable veteran front-of-the-rotation starter while not costing an insane amount of money. Plus, Eovaldi’s a proven playoff pitcher with a 3.14 ERA and 43 innings pitched over six playoff series. With the Astros seeking their 7th straight ALCS appearance, Eovaldi would certainly help there.
According to Spotrac, Eovaldi has a market value of 16.7 million dollars which is cheaper than Stripling and nearly three times cheaper than Verlander. In fact, the Astros could sign both Stripling and Eovaldi for nearly 10 million dollars less than Verlander (34.3 to 43). Maybe, they should do that.