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......
