Astros have been near the top of MLB salaries the last few years. If there was a salary cap, the Astros would have been on the losing end.
Couple of thoughts: Losing 2019 World Series just stinks when you look at where this team is today. Not all doom and gloom but this team will clearly look different moving forward. Not to mention the impact Covid has had. I'm very very happy for George Springer. This man deserves it and he should never have to pay for a meal in Houston. Crane needs to step up and sign Correa to some type of extension or Click needs to trade him to maximize getting as many prospects as possible. Springer netted Houston a fourth round pick. I hate to see them get the same for Correa. The outfield needs to be addressed ASAP. Can't go into 2021 with Tucker and Straw being your two main guys plus a filler for the 3rd spot . I hope Bradley Jr. isnt the plan with Straw taking the third spot. It seems Brantley might be going to the Blue Jays or possibly the Mets. Houston will need offense if they want to compete. Seeing/reading a lot of possible great things about Pedro Leon. All we can do wish for the best with him. With prospects, it can be a crap shoot as there aren't guarantees when it comes to prospects. I hope he isn't rushed too quickly. I'm still really nervous with Click... i hope he can make some decent moves quickly.
Jim Crane won't sign Carlos Correa to an extension. There is nothing in their dealings that would indicate this.
I'm happy for Springer, he deserves it, but that is gonna likely be a really bad contract in a few years. I never really expected to retain Springer, so I'm not disappointed (nor do I think it would have been a smart deal). However thus far this has been a bad offseason for Click, there's no other way to sugar coat it. Even given the financial restraints, we haven't addressed anything and our small signing seems like a bad one to me. Still time for him to make some moves, but yeah, not good so far.
Springer was never coming back and Brantley was a long shot so nobody should be surprised. Covid hit the Astros and lots of other teams hard so expecting big spending isn’t realistic. The budget is going to be tighter. No idea what’s going to happen with Correa.
Congrats to Springer - he deserves to get paid. I'll miss seeing him play for the Astros, but it's also the right move to let him go if he was getting that kind of money and it's not just about Crane being cheap. Toronto will be a fun team to watch.
Correa has only played more than 110 games once in his career, and has been mediocre offensively in 2 of the last 3 (including 2 of the last 3 postseasons), yet people want Crane to give him 200 million dollars. We've taken playoffs for granted so we've been able to afford his fluctuations, but at that salary he would need to be a full season stud, which we have absolutely no evidence he's capable of.
I'm not sure my official ranking for favorite Astros of all-time, but Springer is absolutely on my Mt. Rushmore. Will miss rooting for the guy.
In 3 years I think that Springer contract is going to look awful. Springer is going to turn 32 in September. In 2020 how many players finished the regular season at age 33 or older and put up an OPS over .800? 6 guys... Votto, Blackmon, Brantley, Goldschmidt, Abreu, and Nelson Cruz Make the age 34 years old or older with an .800 OPS and the answer becomes 3..... Nelson Cruz, Charlie Blackmon, and Joey Votto Votto was right at .800 and Blackmon at .804
I LOVED watching Springer play for the Astros. But I am glad they didn't give him $150M+. He is overpaid by about $30M. If Crane has $150M lying around he needs to extend Tucker, Alvarez, Framber, and Urquidy for cheap and give the other $100M to Click to use on acquiring draft picks, international slots, and prospects by taking on bad contracts.
With yesterday's signings, both the Angels and the Blue Jays passed the Astros in projected fWAR. Astros sit in 8th in the league, 5th in the AL. If the season started today, they would not be favored to win their division.
It's still very early so who knows what's going to happen but I wonder that if under Click the Astros will be moving towards more of a model oriented towards constructing a team that has a good chance of winning 88-92 games with excess assets traded off to extend the window. There was a talk of Luhnow using a model like this when he came but he clearly was interested in constructing the best teams possible while within the contention window, even if it meant potentially shortening the window.
Springer is almost certainly one of the best OF in franchise history, but he is not a Mt. Rushmore player. He currently sits 14th in franchise history in WAR. He never won an MVP and is extremely unlikely to reach the Hall of Fame. Had he re-signed with Houston, he would have had a chance to be a Mt. Rushmore type of player but as it stands he was just one of the 4 star players on the teams that currently had the most success in franchise history.
We've known for 20 months that Springer was gone. It's a shame they only got a 4th round pick for losing him, and it's a shame Click hasn't already made significant moves to soften the blow. But this was a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. Correa is as good as gone too. Crane knowingly hired a GM who believes in total-value roster construction, which makes it extremely unlikely they will make large free agent signings. I predicted they will sign Ozuna but that is only because I think his market is soft and he will go for <$90M (most sites project something like $70M/4yrs which I think would be a very good value). Houston will not make an 9 figure free agent signing as long as Click is the GM. And I'm ok with that. Just win.
