Jake Kaplan made a good point in his article about Odorizzi signing if the Astros did get creative enough to keep under the luxury tax. It might be bad news for Cishek and Souza making the team since Cishek gets 2.25 million and Souza gets 1.15 if they make it. We will have to see what the Odorizzi contract numbers look like exactly.
So, whatever the numbers, we are up against a financial brick wall after this deal? Cant add anyone later? What circumstances would lead to having some more space?
It is very likely there is almost zero room under the tax after signing Odorizzi. To add anyone later, they’d have to commit to going over the tax (which is not a huge deal, they did it last season, just costs draft pick positions and possibly international signing bonus pool). However, if they got creative they could add despite being up against the tax: Verlander is the obvious solution. Including him in a trade or signing him to an extension would release part of his $33M hit, which would likely give them plenty of room to do whatever they want at the deadline. They can always pay whichever team they are trading with to eat salary on the player Houston is adding to avoid going over the tax; just costs more prospects.
It's more like a wall made of drywall than brick. If Crane wants to bust through it's not the end of the world. The financial penalties are almost nothing. The real reasons for staying under the tax are about draft picks. 1. IF Correa doesn't sign an extension and he leaves the Astros could attach a qualifying offer and if he declines and leaves you get a compensation pick. Same goes for Verlander and McCullers potentially. If you stay under the tax those picks are after the 2nd round. Going over the tax the picks are after the 4th round like we got with Springer. 2. If we wanted to sign a player with an attached qualifying offer next offseason then we lose our 2nd and 5th highest picks plus 1 million in international signing money. If we stay under the tax we only lose the 2nd pick and 500k in international signing money. Like Snake said, one way to save money would be to redo/extend Verlander before the season starts. If you extended him for 2022 for 18 million you could redo his contract to include his current 2021 salary and make the new contract 2 years 51 million. That would reduce his AAV from 33 million to 25.5 million. Could do the same thing with Greinke also but wouldn't save as much since the Dbacks are paying some of his salary. The other way to make cap space would be trading salary away. Also, you could make a trade and get the other team to pay all of his salary by giving up more prospects. That's one way to make additions without adding salary.
FWIW from what I was told the tax thing is being over blown. It was an arbitrary line for Crane. For the right situation they will add more later in the year. There are limits but the tax line isn’t going to be the end all be all
Veterans Steve Cishek and Steven Souza Jr. are working to make the Astros’ roster out of camp, but their chances took a hit yesterday with the signing of Jake Odorizzi, writes the Athletic’s Jake Kaplan. Cishek would make a $2.25MM salary were he to make the team, while Souza would earn $1.15MM. The Astros very much prefer to stay under the luxury tax to avoid the worsening of the draft pick compensation they might receive if Carlos Correa, Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, or Lance McCullers Jr. are offered (and decline) a qualifying offer at year’s end. While the terms of Odorizzi’s deal are not yet known, it’s likely to take them close to the $210 luxury tax threshold. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/03/quick-hits-cishek-souza-herrera.html
So whitley comes to camp, participated in some drills, threw in a simulation game and now may need tommmy john surgery?
LMFAO I'm obviously not happy the kid got hurt, but I don't really feel too bad about it. Nothing about his attitude or demeanor has suggested a guy who's gonna succeed in the majors. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants he needs.
He was too stubborn to listen to any of the Astros pitching staff. He comes across as a “know it all” type of guy. The latest huge disappointment with Whitley just adds to the list of things that have gone wrong for him the past couple of years
Wonder what grade sprain it is. Always thought they wouldn’t do the surgery unless it was a significant tear.
