You never know for sure, but $25M/year is a good number, IMO. We have zero idea how he'll age. He's one of the most unique players of all time, and at this point I'm not betting against him. I'm hoping to see 3k hits and 30 postseason HRs by the end of this deal.
This will not affect the 2024 luxury tax since it is entirely an extension for 2025-2029 with an AAV of $25M/Yr. If he had rolled in his 2024 season, the luxury tax for this season would have been recalculated to cover all six seasons.
I love it. I do wonder why it was front loaded. Doesn’t seem to make much sense to either side. Only benefit to that is lowering the AAV if he’s traded in the last 2 years of the deal. The only other way it makes sense is if Altuve isn’t sure he wants to play that long and wants that decision to be easier if he wants to walk away before the deal is up. .270/.350/.450 while remaining barely playable at 2B over 2025-2028 will be plenty to make this a fine value.
Such a great move. Altuve epitomized what this Astros team was all about. It’s right he gets to be the one to stay!
1 down, 2 to go Is it Bregman or Tucker next? My guess is we eventually sign Tucker but Bregman walks. The number on Bregman is in the 9 yr/270 million area. Hard pass.
Glad to see this got done. Also glad Crane stuck to his 5 year limit. A little concern about two players restricted to playing DH when Altuve and Alvarez near the end of their contracts. Perfectly willing to ignore that for a few years.
I see it as a hedge that we may in fact have to take a competitive step back in a few years. Lowers the cap hit for the next few years when we will be for sure worried about the cap, raises the cap hit but lowers the raw dollar amount for when we may be in a rebuild and less concerned with the cap, but will be a little concerned with the overall bottom line. Also from a business perspective it increases Altuve's earning potential by getting the money a little sooner. Not sure if it played into it, but it does.
Cap goes from $23.3M to $25M for Altuve, but is proportional to the cap % increase from 24 to 25 and freezes for the remaining 4 years which is a gradual reduction of Cap % as the cap rises. Cash flow is totally different and the cap Might be weighted toward the front end if the signing bonus isn't averaged in over the full 5 years. There are many rules and changes to rules which make it speculative if you don't have access to the MLB Agreement with the Player's union regarding allocations of cash and cap. This can cause what appear to be discrepancies in reporting to simply differences in allocations and book-keeping. The most difficult is accounting for deferred salary.
Very well deserved and it’s great to see the team show loyalty to Altuve and the fan base. Someday we’ll see Altuve going to cooperstown in Astros hat joining the other Astros lifers Biggio and Bagwell.
I championed the Astros trading him ~2014 - I could not see a way in which what he was doing was sustainable. I also feared 2020 was the beginning of the end - MLB is LITTERED with great 2B who just bottomed out around the time they hit 30. Like, it's shocking how often it has happened. I no longer question anything with him. He's an anomaly that makes no sense - but goodness gracious, is he incredible.
The only math we need to be discussing is what the specs should be for his statue outside of MMP. Also, should he be: chewing his fingernails in the dugout hitting a high fastball adjusting his batting gloves between every pitch holding his shirt closed as he crosses home plate (just to troll the haters)
