Is it luck? It's hard to win a WS, lots of things have to come together at the right time. "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." -- Seneca, maybe
People are people but it is pretty unusual in baseball for a player to express any resentment toward another player making a lot of money whether he is or isn’t struggling. The only exception I can think of is Anthony Rendon. Supposedly there were a few teammates that privately complained about him - but that was because of his lack of effort and less about his money. There was a Mariners player, Winkler, that was disliked by his teammates- but again that was because they didn’t believe he was trying and was exaggerating injuries. A player can be high strung or aloof or even crabby as long as the effort is there. For all the negative press Bonds got, because he performed so well and the effort was high - he was extremely respected so he could get away not saying “hi” to teammates. Similar story with Willie Mays and Randy Johnson and countless others. Really comes down to if you are respected more than liked from what I have seen and heard. Jose Abreu was respected by his teammates for his prior accomplishments and his professionalism and was also known for being a well liked guy. So I don’t think any of the players resented him. I think having a player that cared as much as Abreu struggle like he did was probably hard - but I don’t think the Astros turn around is because Abreu to human being is gone. Keep in mind, even on the Astros - someone like Verlander doesn’t go around having friendly and daily conversations with all his teammates. However, because of his accomplishments and because of his work ethic - he is incredibly respected and outside of Altuve, probably has the most influence in the locker room when he chooses to use it.
I am telling you; their title last year was so fluky it’s not even funny. Not to mention you got the local Dallas radio guys talking about trading away mad max now as well
