Watching CWS and the Brewers and they just reminded me of this...God Bless Phil Garner, always liked that guy Only manager fight I can think of.
The Astros kind of screwed Springer with his call up and cost him all kinds of money. I'm not surprised at all that he left especially since we didn't even give him a good offer.
They mitigated part of that initial bad blood by giving him an elevated 2 year pre-arbitration salary, but still leaving the 3rd year open for an additional raise. They were in negotiations as late as 2019 on a future extension (buying out that 2020 year), but when that didn't come to pass both sides seemed to move on right then/there. The scandal, etc. coming out in 2020 really didn't sway much (but of course didn't help).
I'm not sure if Crane could repair the other issues, but from what I've heard, the scandal coming out devastated Springer and killed any chance that he would re-sign.
I was far more optimistic when they were negotiating possible extensions earlier than that. When that broke down, I wasn't expecting much after. Similar to the Correa situation, albeit health a much bigger concern for the current stalemate despite mutual interest. Ironically, I'd expect Correa to play more games over the next 6 years than Springer.