Assistant GM Jeff Bagwell has spoken: “I finally looked at the back of his 2024 baseball card and oof. I’ll have no further comment.” Spoiler “First let me say this, José Abreu has been nothing more than a professional with class and a great player in his career,” Bagwell said. “To get sent down like he did and take that [Minor League] assignmentwas a very, very difficult thing for a player of his caliber. You’ve got to give him a ton of credit for that. It just didn’t work out. When we signed him, if you look at his 2022 numbers -- analytically, data-driven, all that -- he was the guy to get. It just didn’t work out.” “He went down there and made some adjustments,” Bagwell said. “[Assistant hitting coordinator] Rene Rojas spent a lot of time with him. I went down there to see him. I was happy with what I saw. When he came back, it didn’t pan out enough for the organization to see that we could keep trying to see if he could get better, because of the dire need for us to win now.” One day in April, Bagwell and Abreu spent more than an hour together at Minute Maid Park -- first talking about hitting in the dugout, before Bagwell watched Abreu take early batting practice on the field. The pair talked behind the cage several times, with Bagwell giving advice along the way. “I had talked to him a bunch since he got here,” Bagwell said. “It is a hard decision, because at the end of the day, this is about our ballclub and that’s the only thing that matters, is our ballclub. Four, five, six in the lineup or five, six, whatever, that’s where José needed to hit, and it just didn’t work out. That’s what’s hard is because we still have to find RBIs. That’s the bottom line of trying to win.” “He helped carry us at the end of last year and into the playoffs and just got behind in Spring Training and never really found it after it,” Bagwell said. “It wasn’t without effort. And when you’re a team that’s struggling like we are to score runs right now, that’s just something out of my control and it’s out of anybody’s control. It’s not like anybody disliked José. He’s a great human being, had a great career. It just didn’t work out and it’s unfortunate for both sides.” https://links.mlb.mlbemail.com/e/evib?_t=c632e003a756446c956a8e0347d00d08&_m=3f00251812214eac808885f20033efa4&_e=ZZvmyDV-GtECmbGHaKwGWE4KNQZmoUOen3Yp3chE8zkn1guEXpORVGpGMhL3zW3W6m9MBAHGHisAScH4LUrvLg%3D%3D
Dana Brown is saying everything he can to distance himself from the entire Abreu disaster. I don't blame him really, but it's funny to read. Makes me wonder how he feels about taking this job now.
I think it says a lot about Browns character that he feels a need to cover his own ass and point a finger somewhere else. I am severely disappointed by his behavior and believe he should be replaced after this season. Having to replace a GM so often looks almost as bad but it can't be helped. I do not believe a GM who runs for cover in stead of standing up will ever have the respect of the players or even fans. He certainly has lost me.
I disagree. The Abreu deal was done before he was hired. Pointing that out, shields him from all the social media venom and distances him (legitimately) from it for potential future employers. GMs frequently don't last 10+ years in this organization and Dana isn't near ready to retire.
You got to protect yourself. Also, a bit ridiculous that Dana was the one out in the press conference about it.
The first thing I though was that it was very tacky. I’ve never seen a GM do that. We all know that Abreu wasn’t Brown’s deal. He did not have to come out and say it the way he did. It wasn’t professional. That’s just my take.
I agree with the 2nd part. It was a bit paranoid of Brown to think he needed to let us know that Abreu wasn’t his pick. We knew.
I tend to agree. I don't blame him, in a way, but it also looks really tacky and unprofessional. Anyone who matters would already know he wasn't responsible. He made himself look petty, but, again, I can see where he is coming from.
I said this a week or so ago when Brown was talking about Abreu in another quote. He was making damn sure he wasn't the one that was going to die on the keep Abreu hill. I think he wanted him gone instead of going to Florida (probably knew it was a pony show) and others in the organization persuaded Crane to listen to them and send him to Florida. I haven't seen the quote today that is referenced but Brown isn't going to wear this for someone else just because he is the GM, and they went against him. This is a reminder to Crane that he is the GM and it is time he starts listening to him and not a bunch of ex-players that are clearly over their heads.
"Dana" is a liar and a coward. He has demonstrated over and over that nothing he says can be counted upon. Now instead of moving forward decisively to fill the hole created by Abreu's overdue expulsion he is busy pointing fingers at anyone but himself and crying it wasn't me, it wasn't me. Instead of hiding behind that crap perhaps he should have done something about it sooner instead of wasting half the damn season. We have all known damn well this was coming. It should have been done long ago. A real GM would have planned for it and decided on a solution before he needed one. Instead we get, well we're gonna try this and when that doesn't work out we might try that. I am ashamed of his association with our city and our team. If the draft was not upon us I would be advocating for sending him packing today.
More of an indictment of Bagwell's character for not being present to announce the release since he is the one that advocated his signing the most publicly and that he would turn it around.
I do. The analytics were fairly obvious: Prior to '22, he carried a .515 career slugging %. It dropped to .446 in his age-35 season, which was - at least in terms of games played (157) - an otherwise healthy season. I'm certainly not going to argue a *second* ~60-point drop was obvious - but most analytics-based baseball people saw that a red flag and reason enough to be careful with him, in terms of money and, especially, years. Keith Law, I know, ripped the deal to shreds and was spot on. He wasn't exactly the lone dissenter. What Crane doesn't seem to recognize is that smart baseball people - like Click - don't necessarily object to moves like signing Abreu. I'm sure Click would've recognized the need/potential value. What he brings to the table, though, is a way to process data to make a more informed financial decision - and having the ability to set the ceiling and then stick to it. When guys like Bagwell get involved... they're players. They're driven by a completely separate - and often, antagonistic motive: maximizing a player's earnings and, just as dangerous, being oblivious to decline, and such, as they've spent their entire careers denying it themselves. They don't want to see it.
I really do wonder what Abreu’s other offers were at the time. I suspect just about every team in the league would have offered him at least some kind of contract; it’s unlikely any team foresaw the absolute free fall he’d take. But smart teams probably limited themselves to 2 years and <$40M. I assume there was another dumb team that put out a 3 year offer that pushed Houston over the line. But there’s a very significant difference between eating $10M and eating $30M, a fact I think someone like Reggie Jackson or Jeff Bagwell would have downplayed. The Padres, Cubs, Marlins and Guardians were all connected to Abreu in some fashion before Houston signed him; my guess would be the Padres offered a 3rd year for less money, as I highly doubt the Marlins or Guardians got close to what Houston offered, and the Cubs usually don’t do stupid deals like that recently.
