I agree with you across the board. . He was slipping a bit, but still deserved to be the closer here. I assumed he would be the closer last year- he did nothing to lose that in 2023. Plus we had our next closer waiting in the wings - Abreu. I figured at some point he would take the closer role from Pressly and that would have happened last year. But the Hader signing came out of nowhere, and that changed everything. It was not necessary and to spend that much on a closer when we had Pressly and Abreu, it made no sense. They could have extended Bregman for cheaper than hes asking for now and went out and got a real LF too instead of adding to a bullpen that was in good shape anyway. Happy for Pressly that hes back to being one of the 30 closers in MLB again. Great Astro, should have finished here.
Has the physical been approved? I thought all this was known yesterday other than pending the passing of his physical. Or was I dreaming?
I mean, yeah no s**t. You are literally a perfect closer when it matters most and you get demoted. I understand why the Astros did it, but I also understand why Pressly wouldn't be happy with it.
Whole thing seems odd. Astros didn’t have a good feel for how their current closer would react to a demotion BEFORE they went and spent a hundred Millie on another closer? My inference from all those quotes and rumors is that one of two things happened: either Crane just unilaterally decided to sign Hader (because Crane loves bullpen arms given his baseball background), and the front office (and Pressly) were all caught off guard and so it wasn’t handled effectively, OR the Astros foresaw a decline in Pressly over the 2024-2025 seasons and were just being proactive, and knew there was no way of getting around Pressly getting pissed off. I suppose it’s also possible that Pressly was briefed on it before the signing and acted like he was cool with it, only to realize what it meant for his career/earnings later and had a change of heart very soon after Hader signed. All in all it’s a bummer for the Astros because the way it was handled probably cost them several million dollars in payroll flexibility. Not to mention now their bullpen is worse than it was before. All that could be made right by using the $8M they saved very effectively, but still it’s not a good look.
However, the bottom line is they have Josh Hader in 2025, 26, 27, and 28 If this never happened, they would have Pressly for 2025 but no Hader. You decide if that's good or bad
Another piece to the puzzle gone. We keep subtracting. There are too many holes in the ship. It's going down. And I hate to see it.
I don't think Brown should have said anything. Somethings are better left unsaid. He really does talk to much.
Still don’t understand the Hader signing if you have an established closer and have needs elsewhere. All the best Ryan!!
They were looking for Relief help and discovered Hader was available. It was hoped that it would create a super relief situation. But unfortunately it didn'y.
i feel like that doesn’t work out more times than the super bullpen works out. especially the way it all went down where Pressly had been in place for a long time and even closed out a WS victory as well as Hader being a FA signee. Feel like trading for someone else’s closer at the deadline to be the setup man has a much better chance of working.
We should have experimented with Hader and Pressly switching roles at some point last season. I don't recall that happening much at all.
Pressly had a significant regression the second half of 2023. Certainly not J Abreu “fall off cliff” regression, but enough to where any analytically inclined team would have a possible action plan in place. They were trying to be pro-active rather than reactive. It had mixed results. Bryan Abreu had those spectacular blown saves as well.
