Roy Oswalt is Good (And Other Fairly Obvious Trade Deadline Observations)

The scuttlebutt around the league right now is that Roy Oswalt will not be leaving the black-hole, baseball oblivion of Houston anytime soon. Oswalt has made it clear that he will only waive his no-trade clause if his 16-million dollar option for the 2012 season is picked up by the acquiring team. Unfortunately, for whomever would like to acquire him, that totally sucks. Oswalt has said he's willing to restructure the option in an attempt to make things more appealing, but the bottom line is most teams will be priced out no matter what.

Demands like that make you wonder if Oswalt really wants out of Houston, a team so bad they've asked Walter Matthau to manage them (OMG ROFLMAO!!!). Any team in contention would be happy to have him however. Oswalt's FIP is better than it's been in 4 years, and his K/9 is the best it's been since his rookie season in 2001. Even Oswalt's contract (the remaining pro-rated 2010 salary and 16 mill. for 2011) isn't terribly daunting for most major market teams, especially if the Astros decided to kick in some cash on their end.

But that whole 2012 option thing really muddles things. It's hard to know what Oswalt means when he says he's willing to "restructure," but unless he means 'defer for many years' or 'take a pay cut' chances are the reconfigured deal will still cost his new team a pretty penny in 2012, something they may not be able to afford. For instance, the Phillies have been in on Oswalt from the start, but their current financial situation has them considering moving right fielder Jason Werth in the middle of a pennant race because they won't be able to afford him after this season (but they can afford that glorified DH they have at 1st base for premium player money, but I digress). In theory, Werth could command an annual salary at or around Oswalt's figure for the next 2 seasons, which makes you wonder why they think Werth is too expensive but Oswalt isn't.

Bottom line seems to be that Roy Oswalt probably won't leave Houston this year, and if his 2012 contract demands continue, they probably won't find it easy to move him next year either. Good thing Houston is going to turn it around quickly with their phenomenal farm system!