Ed Wade Gets Thrifty

Houston Astros general manager Ed Wade got pretty creative over the baseball Winter Meetings. Yea, he lost the teams closer Jose Valverde after he declined arbitration. But he replaced him with three quality players for about the same price. He added pitchers Matt Lindstrom, Brandon Lyon and third baseman Pedro Feliz but I didn’t realize how smart of a moves these were till after reading a piece at FOXSports.com.

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On Monday night, Valverde freed the Astros from the $10 million obligation by refusing their offer of salary arbitration.

On Wednesday, the Astros acquired two right-handed relievers: Matt Lindstrom in a trade with the Marlins, Brandon Lyon via free agency.

Lindstrom will probably earn around $1 million in arbitration. Lyon’s deal is worth $15 million over three years.

Then the Astros signed third baseman Pedro Feliz to a one-year, $4.5 million deal on Thursday.

So, they ended up with Lindstrom, Lyon and Feliz for almost the same amount of money — in 2010, anyway — that it would have cost them to keep Valverde.

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After reading this I can’t think of how great of a Winter Meetings the Astros had. They lost their closer in Valverde, which does hurt when you consider he’s led the league in saves in two of the last three seasons. But at the cost of $10 million plus he would actually hurt a team that needs multiple pieces.

By bringing in Brandon Lyon and Matt Lindstrom they bring in two pitchers who have experience in the closers role, although both had shaky stints in the role. Regardless both have proven to be effective major league relief pitchers. The combination of the two could easily replace Valverde if just one gets his head together when closing.

Then too boot Wade brings in a third baseman who is a huge upgrade over Geoff Blum. Feliz doesn’t hit quite as many homeruns but he’s better in just about every other aspect then Blum when it comes to hitting. In addition to that he’ll be a huge defensive upgrade for the Astros.

So looking at it you bring in two quality relievers and an upgraded third baseman for the price it would of cost to keep one elite-National League closer. I’d say that’s a pretty good haul regardless of name.

If Ed Wade could of made moves like this when he was the Philadelphia Phillies maybe they could of started winning a few years earlier then they did.