Mark Berman: Astros offering Carlos Correa a 5 year/160 million dollar contract

Should have just ponied up last spring. Would look like a relative discount at this point.

 

We need to give Tucker a Wander-like contract.

 

Signing Bryant would cover any one of those thing if not two or three

 

So what? They signed Seager for 10 years, Semien for 7 years, and Gray for 4 years. They might not win the division but maybe some of their young guys develop and they can make a run at a Wild Card in the next 2 years. Adding Kershaw for 1-2 years makes plenty of sense and doesn't impact their ability to compete long term. Even after the Seager deal their payroll is estimated to be only 141 million. They have a very similar TV contract to the Astros. They could spend another 50 million on shorter contracts to boost their odds.

 

When has this approach worked? Both short term or long term?

we have first hand examples in this very division (Angels) of a similar approach, without depth or high level homegrown talent, falling short.

They’re literally spending to spend right now because they realized the farm system wasn’t as likely to produce all stars.

Even the 2010-2011 Rangers had a better overall strategy and their window was only 4 years.

 

They will be more competitive and so will the rest of the division outside of the A's.

 

You don't sign a big name free agent and give up a draft pick to create roster redundancy. Right now we are good-to-very good at all the positions he can play. It's the positions he can't play that need upgrades.

 

75-80 wins. Awesome.

The AL east at least has some young depth to supplement the high priced guys. Even the Padres had more upside for spending.

These teams seem to basically be trying their hardest to be as good as possible now to give the most possible competition to the Astros who can still win this division by 5-7 games. The A’s were stronger going into this season than what the higher payrolls are trying to put out there.

 

Who had the Mariners falling 2 wins shy of a playoff spot? Who had the Braves even making the playoffs after Acuna went down? Who had the Tigers stepping up like they did? Who had the Twins becoming an absolute disaster? Astros have a couple key injuries and the division is up for grabs.

They also have a new stadium they are trying to fill... I bet their phones are ringing now with people buying tickets.

 

Bryant doesn't cost a draft pick. He was traded and not able to be offered a qualifying offer.

 

I don’t disagree with any of this and I’d rather teams put out a competitive and enjoyable to watch product even when they aren’t likely to be in WS contention. I’d also rather more money go to the players rather than the owners. I think you could still argue this was not the best way the Rangers could spend the money if they are going to spend it (with the caveat we don’t know what other moves they will make).

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...-seager-texas-rangers-agree-10-year-325m-deal

This is what the market is setting the Astros should be paying that to Correa.

DD

 

Just because other teams offer bad contracts doesn't mean the Astros should.

 

The idea is to play him in right and tucker in center for one year if everyone stays healthy. If Bergman, Brantley, or furrier gets hurt or falls off he can step in and play Siri or Myers in center

 

The Mariners overachieved and could easily regress. The Braves actually underachieved but had the farm system and key components already in place as a playoff team.

while baseball can have random out of nowhere success/failures… it’s not “that” random. The Rangers basically bottomed out last year. Now they’re trying to buy wins without having any idea if they have the depth or farm system to go much further.

Like Houston, fans will show up if they’re contending… not if they’re .500.

 

nope. They just ****ed themselves.

 

Yep. He’s more injury prone than Correa, below average defensively, and probably an equally good hitter. Very bad contract.

 

You are correct. The Braves had pitching depth including in-house developed. In 6 of their 11 playoff wins, the score 4 runs or fewer. While the Rangers are spending (which is good) it's certainly not following the same pattern as the Braves. The Rangers gave up 815 runs last year, and Jon Gray alone isn't going to solve that. Even if they increase their runs scored by 200, they could wind up with an even run differential. They certainly aren't losing 100 games again, but they may not be in the wild card picture with the Mariners and Angels also making improvements.

Given how much the Astros beat up on the West last year, things will be much harder for them.

 

I think the Phillies are a dark horse for Correa. They are all in for this window with Harper and Realmuto, so they may as well do what they can to win. Their rotation is set. They can move Gregorius and/or Stott to the outfield to fill those holes. Or they can trade Segura if they need to free up some short term money (although it looks like they could afford another $35M/yr without going over the tax).

 

maybe I should add, he’s so Hollywood that I can’t see him living in shitty towns like Detroit.

San Diego is diff.