Teams know their players best. So when a club with money to spend and a need for starters now and in the near future like the Astros watched Charlie Morton leave for the Rays and doesn’t do much to sign Dallas Keuchel, you wonder whether Houston knows something about the physical condition of these players that the rest of the sport might not.
That is how I felt when Colorado decided to let DJ LeMahieu leave for the Yankees for two years at $24 million. Yes, the Rockies have young possibilities, including top prospect Brendan Rodgers, and they have increased their payroll a fifth straight year even without retaining LeMahieu, but they are a win-now team and LeMahieu is a win-now player who has worked well in Colorado.