Luhnow and Elias never had to deal with payroll constraints in their runs. They gutted the teams and their payrolls and rebuilt them from the ground up top tier farms. But Luhnow got fired and Elias hasn't made it to the stage where you actually have to pay people and deal with payroll limitations and no top draft picks to work with. Luhnow was great at what he did - we have no idea what his solution would have been to the payroll constraints the Astros have navigated in the years since he left.
I'm sure Luhnow would have been pragmatic in his decision making. Some might even say he would be cold in his decision making. I'm guessing he would've tried to lock guys up long term earlier in their contract years. Example: he would have given Bregs 6 years 170 mil 2-3 yrs ago.
2-3 years ago Bregman was still valued as an elite player and would have expected even more than he did this offseason. Him "giving" Bregman that offer suggests he would have taken it, which he wouldn't. Crane doesn't like mega contracts, not for Luhnow, Click or Brown. As long as he has that mindset guys are gonna leave.
Not to mention much of the Bregman situation this past off-season (where he didn’t get any great offers till the 11th hour… and even then, it likely will be deferred for some time) had every young player being advised by their agents as to why they don’t sign FA buyout deals during their 1st or 2nd year in the big leagues. One of the main strategies Crane has consistently employed is the early extension (Altuve, Bregman, Yordan…. Declined by others). Plenty of threads clamoring to extend Hunter now or Smith now… before they become true mega-stars… and no doubt, Crane has guys crunching said numbers. Will see if any other teams have luck but so far, the early extension just depresses their eventual total career earnings due to inflation in future FA years (under the current, rumored to be endangered, system).
The early signings may or may not depress their earnings. See: LMJ, what the early signings do is give the player generational wealth. I wonder if Crane tried to do an early deal with Framber?
LMJ signed after his TJ surgery... not really "early" and already had a likely cap with the injury recovery unknown. Javier did sign his extension pre-TJ injury... so Crane will still also attempt to get these done regardless of status. Crane loves pitching. Really loves short-term (1-2 year) crazy priced pitching (every JV deal) or extensions for guys in their youthful prime arm years.
Well what do you know, I skimmed through 300 comments and not one mention of Alex being a cheater! Funny how that works......
Bregman accepted. And that's when Boston's hitting machine went to work. Red Sox coaches already had put together a presentation to explain how and why he needed to fix his swing. Over time, Bregman had developed almost imperceptible bad habits. The timing of Bregman loading his hands was too late and too fast. Moving his hands as the ball left the pitcher's hand left him vulnerable, and never did Bregman possess the sort of bat velocity to make up for it. "After those [successful] years, it was like, I wanna be better, I wanna be better, I wanna be better, I wanna be better," Bregman said. "So I started trying to change things and improve, improve, improve instead of doing what made me who I am and just refining what I was already doing at the time."
Red Sox hitting coach Peter Fatse and assistants Dillon Lawson and Ben Rosenthal loved the simplicity of Bregman's move in the batter's box, but they saw more potential and knew swing adjustments would be necessary. Change doesn't exactly suit Bregman. He is the guy who eats the same meal every day and never deviates from his hitting schedule. But he is also the son of two lawyers and at least open to practical solutions, so he was willing to hear out his new coaching staff. The Red Sox worked with Bregman to address the flaw in the swing: It all started, they agreed, with a poor setup and load. Rather than exclusively focus on bat-speed training, Bregman committed to loading earlier and rebuilt his swing in a place that's heaven to baseball rats like him: the batting cage.
Thought hitting coaches don't do anything?! Maybe he trusted theirs more than ours? He always seemed to be the guy who had his own personal swing coach (kinda like Uncle Mike) and had even made a bunch of videos of him during his rehab working on and breaking down videos of his swing after a cage session.
Always hard to know how much is the luck aspect of baseball vs actual change. Bregman is striking out way more , but crushing baseballs. He's also pulling the ball more than ever, which happens in Fenway, but he is coming from MMP, so you wouldn't expect that aspect to change much. Though an earlier load would help pull more as you are getting to the ball sooner.
Good news is that there are three of them, maybe we could get one of the assistants to be our hitting coach next year.
Bregman never had a great swing. His super power was being able to recognize pitches better than anyone in league other than Soto or Trout. He's pretty good at fighting off pitches also. Boston helped his swing.
.......... are we sure Bregman's swing was "broken"? His last two months with the Astros, he posted an .883 OPS. He slugged .557; right now, in his first two months with Boston, .949/.567. He's walking a touch more and he has (for him) an absurdly high BABIP. Otherwise, he kind of looks like.... Alex Bregman has always looked.
The scandal broke out days after Cole's last game. He was just a genuinely butthurt "Why Hinch No Play Me", Boras hat wearing, mercenary douche. But the scandal had to have been final blow to an Astros return. The other players, yes things werent the same after the scandal. Add in the covid lockdown strangle, and its all disruptive morale crusher. Much easier to go away from continuing a disputed "dynasty", to taking care of yourself on a last fat contract in final years, in a friendlier setting. (All of them took the bigger payday offered, but no hometeam love Altuve thing) In Bregman's case, can be where his ego can go free again. Big difference in making yourself a villian to others loose & free, compared to entire franchise being the villian that you're the face of
They won a World Series in 2022, played in another one in 2021, and played in a 7 game ALCS in 2023. Bregman was not thinking about distancing himself from a 8 year old cheating scandal or having the weight of being the "villain" now being too much for him. Likewise, any of those other players that left for "bigger paydays, and getting away from this" would have actually benefitted exponentially from being in the national spotlight of playoff/World Series games for another 3-4 years. Correa hasn't been all that relevant since 2021. Ditto Springer since 2020. Altuve didn't get any home-team discounts either. He took the money just as much as anybody else did. He was also "offered" the money moreso than any of the others did. He was chosen to stay here just as much as he chose to stay here. Yordan will also be in the same position Bregman was after his early extension. The Astros will likely want to make something happen before he enters his final year (presuming he can still walk and his arms haven't been amputated). Most agents will recommend the players bet on themselves and don't take early discounted money... unless they're directed by said player to make the deal work here "at all costs".
