With all the good free agent outfielders now signed, the Astros wouldn’t be moving Pressly to the Cubs or Tigers for salary relief if they didn’t think they had a realistic chance at a Bregman return. That said, I’ll miss Pressly. He didn’t deserve to lose his closer job heading into last season, and they don’t win the 2022 World Series without him.
Brown: •“Bregman is still a free agent. Going back to December, multiple conversations. Looked like it would be tough so we didn’t want to wait around and added certain players. To see he’s still a free agent is pretty interesting. We see it every day. We’ve had conversations internally. He’s still a free agent. Scott & I exchange text messages. We’ll leave it at that.” •(Altuve in LF?) Don’t want to get into hypotheticals. I didn’t say anything to Jose about playing LF. Not something we’re talking about right now. Bregman is still a free agent. I’m sure a few teams are still talking to him. •(Pressly trade) Said all along we’ll be creative to do what we can do. Never took anything off the table. Right now, Pressly is still an Astro. •(Can you go over CBT?) Crane has always been about putting a good product on the field, getting to the postseason and try to go deep in the postseason and the ultimate goal of winning the World Series. Jim will go over the CBT if he has to, if it’s a fit and makes sense. He’s shown he’s dedicated to that. I’m not saying we’ll do it this year but Jim will do it if he thinks it’s a good move. •(Where do you feel you need to add?) LH bat in the outfield. LH bat period. Right now we got Alvarez. A LH bat would be really nice. Not sure if it will happen with how the market’s shaping up. Espada: •(Bregman) Like I’ve always said, arms are open. I want him back. We haven’t shut that door. He’s still a free agent. If I could have Bregman back, I would have him back. I want him back. •(Altuve to LF?) Not going to give specifics of how we’d make it work but we’ll make that work. We’ve had internal conversations if we brought Bregman back and we have ways to make that work.
The Astros are under the CBT right now with Pressly’s 14M on the books. They would not be trading him for salary relief and weakening their shallow bullpen after the two remaining options to address their weakness in the outfield (Santander and Profar) just signed earlier this week. @Nook previously mentioned that moving Pressly’s contract was necessary for the Astros to get involved in the Santander market.
I could see it, if we trade Pressly, Bregman gains some leverage that he'll definitely try to use to get a longer deal with more money. He doesn't really care where he plays.
It’s hard to find a match for why Houston would be moving salary if they weren’t planning on resigning Bregman. LHB making >$5M that might be available: Willi Castro Christian Yelich Brandon Nimmo Masataka Yoshida Bryan Reynolds Andrew Benintendi Trent Grisham Cedric Mullins Mike Yastrzemski Jeff McNeil Ryan O’Hearn Luis Arraez A lot of those guys probably aren’t available or a fit. I could also see them potentially circling back to Arenado or Suzuki.
According to what I have seen, they are a bit less than $3M over the CBT right now, as the roster sits. That is listing the pre-arb guys at MLB min and guys like Diaz and Brown, etc will likely get a token raise of $50K or so.
Still. They wouldn’t likely be moving one of their three best relievers this late in free agency unless they had plans for that money, especially considering the free agent market at the position they need most just dried up this week.
Those numbers are based on quite a few assumptions from minimum salaries for 26 man pre-arb guys to 40 man salaries to player benefits among other things. I am very skeptical that the Astros are currently over the CBT.
Had to hit the translate button but this is the Astros Spanish beat writer(who actually gets pretty good scoops from time to time) Sounds like Pressly to Cubs is a done deal as long as he essentially gets guaranteed the closer role
The Cubs would be foolish not to guarantee it to him. They had to know it would be a condition of him waiving his no trade clause.
