Crane isn't gonna panic, often the best move is the low key one, or no move at all and just letting your guys play. Which would be funny if it plays out that way when that's exactly what Click would have done. Maybe Click would have been opposed to the Abreu move though, which would have really put us in a hole. FWIW I'm really not concerned with this offseason. The Astros are gonna be in the playoffs, and our group will be well prepared to win when we get there regardless of what happens the rest of the offseason. I'm most concerned with our long term future, which still concerns me.
A flurry of potential moves: Conforto $32M/2yrs Kluber $36M/2yrs Taylor Rogers $34M/3yrs Danny Jansen for Urquidy and Meyers Alek Thomas for Whitley, Lee, and Paredes 2B Altuve SS Pena DH Alvarez 3B Bregman RF Tucker 1B Abreu LF Conforto C Jansen CF Thomas Bench: Maldonado, McCormick, Hensley, Dubon Rotation: Valdez, Javier, McCullers, Kluber, Garcia, Brown Bullpen: Pressly, Abreu, Montero, Neris, Rogers, Stanek, Maton
Yeah- it really is crazy. I was banging the table for him over Appel (really really didn’t like Appel- never got everyone’s fascination with him- he was never nasty enough for me to be a 1/1 guy) and after about 4 years I thought it was going to be an all timer, like MJ going behind Bowie. But then he just sort of become pretty meh comparatively and it never made a ton of sense to me. I’d still pay him 6/120 in a heartbeat but there is a real chance you’d lose out on that deal.
This would absolutely be me if I owned the Astros and was worth anywhere over 10B. 500M payrolls as far as the eye can see.
At 20 billlion, Steve Cohen can do what he wants with payroll and not care. The Mets 340 million payroll is 2% of his net worth. Can you imagine Bezos as an owner. He’s worth 117 billion. At 2% of his net worth, his baseballs teams payroll would be over 2 billion.
Jim Crane is worth 1.6 billion... He probably wouldn't do too many seasons over that payroll. I wonder how much he makes from the Astros. Has to be a ton.
Other than an awful 2020 COVID year, he is yet to post a sub .830 OPS. He’s got 6/164 left on his deal — compared to the 8/162 Nimmo signed. They’ve both had injury issues, but Bryant played in 140+ games 5 times before free agency — compared to twice for Nimmo. If the Rockies would 30 million or so, that would be interesting.
At 1.6 billion, Cranes payroll at 2% of his net worth would be 32 million. Steve Cohen at 16 billion. Cohen’s payroll at 2% of his net worth is 320 million. just crazy. Extra zero is huge! we have one of the poorer owners in baseball. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1125149/wealthiest-mlb-teams-owners/
Yet he is one of the best. I am sure the Astros fan base have made him a pretty penny over the last 7 years. Owners in the past who have gone all out in order to build a winner has rarely worked. We have a special organization in Houston, but after this core is done, it may be a while before we contend again. Enjoy it.
Let's talk about another player who's career arch went from ROY, NL MVP, clown, to oblivion all within 4 years. I bet that guy wishes his career died a slow death.
He’s making 18M this year. If he’s bad again wonder who will take him and how much he will get. Please let him be bad again.
I feel that's what we are just about down to. A couple of low-key players (I would consider Vazquez one) and if we sign Brantley after being deemed healthy, I think we are ready to rock n roll.
I wouldn't give up anything for Alek Thomas. I'd just wait until they put him on waivers and sign him for the minors.
I didn't realize Bellinger had the same career path as Bryant, although you're right his career is dying a near sudden death.
So right now our net payroll adjustment is +2.3 million? (JV, Abreu, Montero). I know we have players arbitration eligible, does anyone know approximate ballpark values of those players eligible? I usually refer to spotrac for this kind of stuff but I just looked and they haven't even updated anything regarding this off season for the Astros. Any better site to reference? Edit: they actually have it updated with all the off season moves, says we are at $141.8 million. They also estimate our ARB dealings to bring our payroll up to $180.2 million.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/mlb-projected-arbitration-salaries-2023.html Here is one for you
Cot’s 2023-2027 tracker https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-west/houston-astros/
