Or he's showing the fiscal discipline that has gotten the Astros to 4 WS and 6 ALCS's. It seems like you just want him to spend for the sake of it - value and future be damned. Thankfully, he's less panicky than fans.
Absolutely agree. If they want players on a short term deal, they need to pay higher AAV. Do you know what the Astros offered? Unless I missed something, you seem to be just making up Astros' offers and treating them as fact. The player still has to want that deal. Maybe Benitendi simply wanted a long-term deal. The difference with Correa is that we knew what the Astros offered.
Astros have had a crazy amount of home grown players be successful. When that ends, so does the golden era of Astros baseball. As example, if Astros didn’t have Peña as Back up to Correa, Astros would have had to go all in for a SS and spend some bank on one.
Sure - and in that scenario, maybe they'll change their strategy based on the circumstances. If they didn't have Pena, they might have spent money last year on a SS. But they *did* have Pena. And they won a WS and retained flexibility. What will also end the golden era of Astros baseball is throwing money around without regard for value so that when they do have that next need and no Pena to fill the void, they won't have the money to fix it.
If people can’t realize why the Brantley deal was better structured to allow for the most flexibility and mitigate the most risk, then there’s really no point in discussing things further.
it’s all about the minor league talent, Astros need to keep producing the Altuves, Correas, springers, Alverezes, Bergmans, Penas, McCullers, Abrues, Frambers, Garcias, Javiers. Astros keep doing that and we will be one of the greatest organizations of all time. We don’t and our golden era closes.
Are Contreras, Benintendi, and Vazquez a year or two longer and maybe a couple million higher AAV then you want to pay? Yes probably. But would it really hamstring the team? Contreras maybe if he really fell off due to mid-30s catcher history, but not Benintendi or Vazquez. Seems their downside case is ~league average production at their position due to defense and ability to make contact. Even if they become unplayable by the end 10-15M dead money for a year isnt crippling. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt until we see what the Astros do with the remaining ~$40M to CBT. But I do expect most (20-30M) should be spent on something to improve the team, or extend one of the in-house stars, prior to Opening Day. No need to carry more than 10-20M for trade deadline salary accommodation.
A this point, I think Tyler Naquin would be the kind of guy the Astros would sign over Conforto. Coming off a subpar year with two teams makes him a cheap option for a left handed bat out of Spring, TX
I find it interesting that the same folks wanting to ignore Benitendi's injury and pay him are the same people who have given up completely on Meyers and his injury plagued season.
He also looks like a good candidate to do well without shifts. Better wOBA when not shifted, and had a lot of balls hit right into shifts. Good speed, and no major recent injuries that I'm aware of.
Crane is also very aware that he has to sign a new GM within the next couple months. Of course- Crane can sign off on whatever free agent he wants- but he likely wants to leave as much flexibility for his future GM as possible. Signing a guy like Benintendi to a 5 yr deal (even at 15 mil AAV) doesn’t give the Astros the type of flexibility they like to have long term. We just won a World Series and added a former MVP… and despite losing the AL Cy Young we also have 2 more potential Cy young candidates in Framber and Javier and still one of the deepest rotations in baseball.
Some people max out every credit card they have, not realizing they are paying huge interest on it. They will tell you they have the system rigged because they are paying off the debt with cheaper dollars. Others HATE debt and pay it off as quickly as is rational. Different strokes for different folks.
Vasquez did not want to play second fiddle. Benintendi is a LFer and we have one of the best already.
