Jim Crane promoting from within is a nice move. New Assistant GMs. Hopefully new information comes out.
He acted like an arrogant douche in the end, and I was critical of some of his moves, but overall I don't have much bad to say about Click. His contributions in building the BP in 2022 directly led to us winning the title. It's hard to just straight up trash him. Wish he could have been more professional, not leaked "stories" to Brian T Smith, and not been running his damn mouth at the GM meetings. It is what it is.
yikes!!! What was he saying at the GM meetings? Well obviously, it’s a good thing him and the Astros parted ways. I’m curious without a GM, how the Astros are proceeding going after Verlander and other free agents?
Not that I am too sorry to see Click go if he truly was operating like Tampa Bay east instead of 2000's-era Yankee central like Crane wanted. But I am starting to get Steinbrenner type vibes from Crane. Hopefully that just means he wants to win at any cost and still lets his people make most of the decisions.
Assuming all that is true it would have been pretty interesting seeing how the team would have been with Starling Marte and Liam Hendricks. Crane clearly is not an idiot on the baseball side of things and they have both performed well.
I don't get how a gm doesn't do what the owner tells him to do in signing bonafide stars for positions in need. He literally told him to go spend my money on these guys and click says no I've got a better unproven option that'll save you money.
“We’re going to interview a bunch of people and see where we land with that. I don’t expect anything to happen before the first of the year.” — Jim Crane
It's not like Crane makes decisions with his gut by watching ESPN. He's a logistics guy. It's all about the numbers and efficiency. He gets input from trusted people and makes decisions. Montero has been the closest to an overpay he's ever made.
I don't know if Montero is an overpay or recognition of a trend of rising value placed on high leverage relievers whether it's the closer or not. It appears to be the trend early on in the post season.
I said closest meaning its on the border. However, 2 or 3 million a year isn't going to prevent him from getting what he wants.
It's the Tampa Bay way - you always believe you can work it out and never sign elite players. It's also why Tampa Bay, despite being very good, can't really develop any consistency and every year, the team has to find different ways to muddle through each season.
It's like people who are frugal when they don't have money and suddenly they get a lot but stay frugal. It's just engrained into them that there's a right way to do things. Obviously just my guess, but that was the biggest concern when he was hired - he never had worked with an actual large budget before and did he know how to really use free agency effectively?
Reading the responses, are many of you saying that basically, Crane wants a Yes Man? Is that a good thing?
That's a rather weird conclusion. He wants someone he can trust to make good decisions and someone who will be aggressive in filling holes in the lineup. He wants Luhnow without the personality issues. If you think think Luhnow was a yes man, then I guess that is what he wants.