I don’t that’s necessarily the case. There are many avenues of logic for Houston to sign Soto: Combine him with Tucker and the other current players to maximize the odds of winning a ring in 2025. Use him as a replacement for Tucker, trading Tucker for prospects to rebuild the farm and improve both the long term and short term outlook. Combine him with Tucker AND sign a bunch of other good players in a Jim-Crane-as-mad-king depletion of wealth.
Perhaps he can sign Soto to a long term, deferred deal. Resign Tucker and Bregman, win another ring or two in a few years, increase the value of the club... then sell before he has to deal with the deferment.
I have wondered if there was anything in the CBA preventing a team from circumventing the CBT by giving a free agent a % ownership in the team. Once these guys get up over $500M, their contract represents a significant % of the franchise’s value. Give Soto 20% of the team, then just pay him like $300M/15yrs.
I don’t think theres any rules per se, however I doubt any owner will hand over equity stake… hell, not sure Crane even has the authority to allocate any percentage (let alone 20) with all the other partners/owners he has to answer to. I do think all of these owners can afford the most egregious of contracts. Franchise values keep going up. Ancillary revenues (SCSN, hotel/entertainment district) continue to come online. National TV/streaming revenue continues to increase in value for now. And everybody has a cash out option to prevent any perceived year to year losses. The ‘budget’, based on maximizing profits, adjusts whenever the right player comes along… or whenever revenues exceed expectations. By this point, Crane and his partners also have to know what it’s going to take to continue to pack MMP for 81 regular season games (and playoffs). Houston supports winners and stars very well.
Free agent shopping list: 1B: Alonso, Walker, Goldschmidt, Bell, France, Turner, Santana, Canha 3B: Bregman LF: Soto, Santander, Hernandez, Torres, Pederson, Profar, Winker, Conforto, O’Neill, Jimenez SP: Burnes, Snell, Fried, Kikuchi, Flaherty, Pivetta, Cobb, Scherzer, Manaea, Severino, Heaney RP: Neris, Martin, Brebbia, Minter
Trammel has a career 104 wRC+ vs RHP Chas is 142 vs LHP Meyers is 114 vs LHP As long as they address 1b, 3b, and the other OF spot let hm platoon with 1 of them and I'm happy.
I think they will address 3rd base and that may be it. Perhaps a platoon mate with Singleton too but not counting on it.
Screw Soto... United Nations of Houston is concerned with the arms race here.... if you can't get Burnes bc you cant burn cash... you bring back Kikuchi, go after your goldenboy Snell, attempt to get Flaherty, Morton, Crochett. There is absolutely no reason this team should pay the contracts for Valdez, Pressly, Hader, or Tucker next year... you get PROSPECTS/TRADE CHIPS and freed-up ScroogeMcDuck FU money to play with... Complacency never won shitt. Have some balls and make some POWER MOVES. Lets see them nuts DB.
Players come and they go. They have a limited time during which they can contribute to the team then they move on. They are well paid for their services but the team must replace them all at some point. I do not believe any player can contribute enough to justify a share of ownership.
I love the passion but simply don't see it. They have: Framber, Brown, Blanco, and Arrighetti healthy and ready to go. They have Garcia over 1 1/2 yrs removed from TJS. They have McCullers who they are paying a ton of money and would LOVE to get some value from. He is SUPPOSED to be healthy and will be given an opportunity if it's true. They have Javier who they expect to be ready around the trade deadline. They have France who can eat innings, but an update on his recovery from surgery has not been made. They have Gusto, Gordon, and Blubaugh who they will need to see if they are MLB caliber or not soon. And the team needs at least 3 bats. Now, consider all that and Dana Brown talking about having to get creative to figure out how to find money to sign anyone. What are the chances the Astros bring in a $20M+ starting pitcher?
Yes, go read my other post where I said move the guys who are coming off the surgeries & workload to LTR in the BP. Blanco needs to be a 3-4 inning mid reliever (when necessary) this season due to his workload this past season-- maybe he starts a few!??! I see 2 starters after you move Framber. LMJ, Garcia, Javier (if ready) are LTR BP prove-it guys. France got demoted like a MF this past season like Bieliak (sp?). I see Brown and Arrighetti as PROVEN workhorse starters (remember, FV is getting moved). NEED STARTING PITCHING AND NEED TO BUILD THIS STAFF UP LIKE IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF 2005/2017 SEASONS. FV is a loose cannon and cannot be trusted. Neither can Pressly NOR Hader. They are both COOKED. Hader was strike 3 in the Montero, Abreu, Hader signings.... HORRIBLE ABSOLUTELY disgusting signing/contracts. Best thing this team can do is separate itself (money, contracts, comebacks) from Valdez, Pressly, Hader, Tucker and possibly/probably let Bregman walk/get paid. Your bats will be there with what you're able to collect off the guys you let go... so will the money. BLOW IT UP.
Not good I would be good with trading for Signing Bregs/ Trading for Lowe and trying to find a good young OF in the Pressley/Caratini trades. If that doesn't work we gotta hope one of the MILB guys come through. Wonder if they could afford a cheap guy like Cahana or Pederson.
As long as Altuve/Alvarez/Hopefully Bregs are on this team they aren't going to blow it up. That doesn't mean at some point Tucker or FV could get moved and I could see this happening to one of them for prospects and to save money. This would allow 3 bats Lowe/Bregs/Robert. FV is very valuable throwing 200 innings every yr. Tucker is a top 10 player when healthy. Who do you let go?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/11/astros-sign-steven-okert-lefty-reliever.html I like Okert on a minor league deal. Good depth arm.
Depends on who they replace them with. Right now with all the free agents unallocated, the Astros project as a 90-95 win team. That will likely go down as other teams add free agents. So yes, if you take away ~7-8 wins Tucker and Framber project to provide and replace them with replacement players (say, Ryan Gusto and Pedro Leon), Houston becomes a 82-88 win team; not quite .500 but not much above that. But if you trade Framber and Tucker with the plan to sign free agents to replace them (say, Santander and Kikuchi), Houston probably only loses 1-2 wins and their farm goes from in the bottom 5 in the league to in the 8-12 range in the league. I’m more on board with trading Framber, assuming they can get 3 of another team’s top 10 prospects (with at least 1 being a consensus Top 75 prospect), because the free agent market sets up well to be able to replace him. Tucker’s bat would be extremely hard to replace, so to trade him I would want 2 MLB Top 50 prospects plus another really good prospect added on, which I don’t see teams paying for a rental. Not that it’ll happen, but part of the appeal of signing Soto is to take the one elite bat off the market and have other teams potentially get desperate and overpay for Tucker.
I think the Astros should sign Kikuchi ASAP. Mlbtraderumors predicts him to get 3 yrs/ $60M and at his age, a longer deal woukd be attractive. I would offer him 4 yrs / $70M with the caveat that the offer goes away if they must shop for other options. The reason for speed is that his first duty will be to help Josh Miller, Bill Murphy, and the need cave recruit Roki Sasaki. Sasaki will be the golden goose, and due to MLB rules, his earning power will be capped. I'm sure his team is waiting to post him until 2025 international budgets can be used, so the difference money wise between the 1st team and 30th team will be negligible. For the first-time ever, money will not decide who gets a Superstar free agent. It will all be about what organization can convince him it is the best fit. If they can manage to sign Kikuchi and Sasaki. . . Trade Framber to a contender (preferably in NL) who has prioritized starting pitching this off season and has prospects and/or young controllable players the Astros like. Mets? Giants? Padres? even the Red Sox. Rotation: Brown FA 2029 Sasaki FA 2031 Kikuchi FA 2029 Arrighetti FA 2030 Blanco FA 2030 Javier FA 2028 Garcia FA 2027 McCuller FA 2027
The Astros were a 90 win team in 2023 and an 88 win team in 2024. Running it back in 2025, the Astros are a 88 win team, at best. If the Astros become a low 80s win team, even in the AL West, they are likely not a playoff team ... unless Jake Meyers wins MVP or some such. Also signing FAs is not a given. The better players (and I not talking about Soto) can easily get priced out of the Astros budget, leaving the Astros to have to settle. Lesser FAs may not move the nettle enough to get the Astros into playoffs (and may not be that cheap as well).
