And it counted more in earlier seasons - it's adds up to the same amount. This team going to be hanging around the luxury tax every year its in contention at this point so all you're doing is helping one year and hurting a different year. And at this point, you have no idea what the luxury tax even will be 3 years from now - either in the team's needs or with the new CBA - so it's not something you can efficiently plan for.
A player on your team who you must compete with the whole league to keep for another season is a de-facto free agent and has ceased to be an extension candidate.
Mathematically you are correct. But the extension benefits the team regardless. Maybe they have an extra $10-$15M to spend early and $10-$15M less late. But you are still able to get a $30+M per year talent within the CBT because you signed him early. But the AAV is the same regardless of what you actually pay him. You lose some on the front end and gain it on the back end, but you always get more value than the player is actually worth, if he's healthy and performs where you expect. Thats where luck, but also good scouting and systems come in. Bregman had 18.5 bWAR (if you project 2020 to 162g) during his 5/$100M extension. Thats 3.7 WAR per year for $5.4M per WAR. Considering FAs cost at least $8M per WAR it was a great value. If you wait and sign him as a FA most teams can't afford him and/or go over the CBT. Thats the reality of why extensions are more valuable than free agent contracts.
If the Stros are unwilling to give him 5 years honestly that’s pretty ****ing outrageous considering they gave Abreu three. That’s absolutely ridiculous on every plane of existence. I imagine he wants a lot more than that.
You keep saying things matter of factly. The Astros were open to Bregman resigning for $30 million a season, which was $10 million more per year than Walker or Kikcuhi. Kikuchi would also be replacing Valdez's underpaid contract the next year, so not a long term hit. Payroll wise, nothing about his deal was a dealbreaker. Personnel wise, they were complacent and thought a couple of their question marks would pan out. None have, and now you go into next season with Brown being the only reliable starter. You need SP to compete for titles... period.
You say that matter of factly. Walter has absolutely proven himself. He just needs to prove his health. There are still 2 months in the season for Arrighetti, Javier, Garcia, Gusto, Gordon, Alexander, and/or even Blubaugh/Ullola to "pan out" and go into next season as reliable starters. And I still think the Astros get a playoff caliber SP today. He could possibly have control.
@IdStrosfan @Htown Stros @Major But, they were deadset on not going over the luxury tax they said!!! It's time for an apology. The Astros never had an issue with the luxury tax for the right player. It was never the issue low level media personnel led you to believe. Unfortunately, they chose to go with the less than average Correa instead of the above average Kikuchi. Likely to overcorrect.
Can you point me to any post anywhere that I talked about the luxury tax and Kikuchi? Or are you just randomly making things up because you have no idea what you're talking about? The Astros were willing to sign Bregman, luxury tax be damned. That's not the reason they didn't sign Kikuchi. You might want to actually read my posts where I talked about that Kikuchi has a choice in where he signs and the two times he's had a choice, he picked west coast teams as many players from Asia do. What that has to do with the luxury tax, I have no idea. If you have a way to move Houston to the west coast, please share more.
Oops.. I apologize for lumping you in with the other 2 who clearly said that. The Angels frontran the Stros and offered him a decent contract while the Astros were playing the waiting game. That's all there was to it. They had too many of their eggs in the Soto basket waiting for his contract to dictate Tucker's value, and holding off on hope Bregman would sign their contract. It had nothing to do with LA being a more desirable location, because to perform at this level, you need to be competitive and playing for a title contender on a 3 year contract is going to carry incentive over your wife's shopping preferences. You have your whole early retirement to do that. What's clear is Crane would easily go into luxury tax for the right guy... I would much rather that have been Kikuchi instead of Correa.
Are you just dumb as **** and can’t read or just trying to troll right now? Go look at what you bolded. We were never going over the luxury tax this offseason. Never said anything about the deadline when the team has needs to be addressed. Regardless, the only reason we went over the tax was Jim Crane wanting Correa back.
There’s zero chance even if Kikuchi did want to come back that Crane was approving going into the tax for him. When it comes to his guys like Bregman, JV and Correa…then yes he will approve it.
Can we create a thread where ApacheWarrior guy and strosb4bros can just post all their thoughts. Asking for a friend.
What's hilarious is you even used this article to back up the fact they didn't offer a contract and it ****ing says right there they weren't going to alter their expenditures. Since you clearly are slow, I'll break it down to you. They weren't willing to sign Kikuchi AND Bregman because of "their (self-imposed) spending restraints." That is directly from the article. In other words, they didn't want to go into the tax to sign both of them. Once they figured Bregman wasn't going to happen, they gave the rest of the budget (i.e. the amount they had left before reaching the CBT) to Cristian Walker. Yes, Crane then appeared willing to go over the CBT if Bregman wanted to return after not finding a deal to his liking...only if he was willing to accept a deal that he clearly was never going to accept. There have been numerous reports that we never increased our offer. I'm done with this conversation.
I was absolutely convinced they weren't going over the CBT this year. I was wrong. But I will also point out that I have been very vocal that they simply can't give up now. They are in too good of a position too late to not make every effort to win. When Paredes was lost for the season, they had no choice but to replace him and there was no way to realistically do that without exceeding the CBT. I'm so happy I was wrong.
