I think the prime years of an athlete is years 27-32. I'm certainly on board with the Tucker deal and would be even if it cost more than your projections. You will get 7-8 great, or really good years out of him. This is why I'm not against giving Tucker a 10 year contract.. Bregs shouldn't get more than 5 years IMHO. Dezenzo working out would be a god send. Bottom line is they need to clear as much payroll as possible so they can either re-sign Bregs, Tucker or add comparable guys in FA.
I really am not overly concerned about the McCullers deal. Click got him at a number that really isn't that much - he played a big part in the 2022 WS and he is only under contract for 2/35 after this season. It was a calculated risk, and when you resign your own guys, some of them get hurt or fail... it is a part of the game. Even with Abreu, it hasn't worked out but it was only a three year deal - in hindsight it was a year too long, but Abreu had offers out there for three seasons and the Astros really wanted a slugger there without compromising the farm system. The Astros have three "bad" contracts on their roster, and that is Montero, Abreu and McCullers. That isn't really all that bad for a team competing for championships. Abreu and Montero will both be off the books after next season, and McCullers the year after that.
Sure - but that is the case for almost every team that has seen their core players reach beyond their initial team control. We could go down the list of teams that have players that their teams want to move and spend the money on other players.
Agreed, maybe they trade prospects to get out from under these contracts. How many of these type deals were on the books when Luhnow was GM?
We don't know how Luhnow would have done signing/resigning guys because he didn't stick around long enough. He over paid Reddick IMO, but it didn't end up mattering.... there is a chance that it would be as bad or worse. The Astros have taken calculated risks under Crane with limited downside - that is why Correa, Springer and Cole are not on the team. The length of those deals at the time were too long.
Agreed, I'm on the trade prospects to get out from under bad contracts and use the money to keep adding to the team. Of course I believe in Dana's ability to add 4-5 quality prospects in the draft and international fa guys each year.
Feldman was brought in as a short term leader of the pitching staff guy. I didn't have an issue with his contract because payroll was basically on par with a AAA squad. If Feldman is the worst that can be pointed out then Luhnow was a wizard.
Right, that was off the top of my head, Luhnow's major mistakes were a couple of trades. One in particular.
Yeah, the ramifications of that trade went way beyond the on-field. I said it when it happened, Hader was the one guy we would regret (Nottingham and Houser? were JAGs) My oh my, how things have come full circle.
I regretted trading away Hader when it happened, and I regret re-signing him to a five year deal that is another likely albatross of a contract both in dollars and years.
The Hader trade is not looking very good, the guy is good but $25 mil per year....not so much. IMO no closer or reliever is worth that much, especially when you have a tandem of Abreau and Pressley and have already overpaid for Montero................between Hader and Montero if you bundle that up it would have paid for King Tuck
That's the issue w/ a Long window In order to compete you usually trade away many of your young potential star players. You usually can't afford to let them get experience and develop at the major league level. So you trade them away and let another team play them while you have guys who are usually better now but also a few years older and further into their control. But then when those guys hit FA you must either trade more prospects away or pay FA prices to fill those holes. All because when you are competing it's hard to let young guys who are a year or more away from their peak production play when it could cost you games. Loperfido is a great example.
