Jose Altuve nearing 5-year, $150-million extension

They essentially have Springer in the same position they had Altuve now.... albeit, he's getting paid just a little more, but he's also going to be older once he finally hits free agency (if he elects to go that far).

If Springer has a huge year, I expect him to actually be more open to negotiate now (or as soon as mid-season)... vs waiting another 2 years and going through the marked du jour of free agency. Of course, if there's a huge off-season of spending (unlike this one), that could certainly change.

 

Hope he does do a friendly deal. Time will tell tho.

 

But in 2019/2020 we have a TON of money falling off. We are top 10 right now but like I've stated plenty of times. Verlander/McCann will fall off. That's 36 million a year. That's not even counting letting a Keuchel or Marwin at their figures go.

 

At this point, it may just be the new norm. Other teams are doubtful to overpay for aging years... and as it is, there aren't going to be a lot of teams any given year that hand out big contracts for the foreseeable future unless they are on the cusp of contending.

So, with 2 years left on Springer's deal before he hits free agency, if the Astros come to him with an Altuve-like extension (for likely less $/year), does it entice him enough to go ahead and sign? As it is, a 5 year extension for Springer also takes him to 34-35.... they may have to go one more year to get enough interest.

 

Certainly - but lots of other people will get arbitration raises, and those players we are losing will have to replaced too.

 

Not that many. They project to again have club controlled guys immersed in the core.

Payroll flexibility will still allow them to add guys at the deadline if needed.

This is also only a contending/war time effect. The second this window closes, I expect them to appropriately shed payroll again.

 

In 2020, I imagine Correa, Springer, Bregman, Peacock, McCullers, Cole, Devenski, Giles, etc will all be paid a decent amount more than they are today, if they are still Astros. And if they are not, that's just that many more key players to replace in addition to Verlander, Keuchel, McCann/Gattis, etc (I assume they won't keep any of these guys). My only point is that getting to a top-5 payroll still doesn't mean we're going to be able re-sign all these guys. As someone said earlier, this team, if all paid market value, is likely the highest paid team in baseball by a good amount due to their combination of greatness and youth.

 

Yeah, doubtful they end up paying all those pitchers big money (and if they all turn out to deserve big money, and are great, then woah... what a run they’re about to have).

These sort of issues tend to work themselves out organically, especially with this sort of front office. They trade for key additions that are beyond rentals. They re-sign/extend guys before they have a chance to hit free agency. They’ll even likely pull off a Cosart-like trade again (trading somebody who seems like he’s a piece of the future, when in reality he’s likely peaked... LMJ?).

It’s going to go beyond simply re-signing every possible arb-eligible player on the roster right now. In the end, they’ll be able to accomodate 2-3 guys on a really big deal... some guys in the middle... and a lot of bargains. It’s almost what they have now, except Verlander is the only really big money guy.

 

It’s pretty far away. Still 3 seasons before Springer hits free agency. Correa, Bregman, McCullers, etc are beyond that.

The money coming off the books in the meantime is quite a substantial part of the 2018 payroll. I don’t see a 30+ year old Keuchel being here next season.

Two more seasons of Verlander at 20 mil/yr..if he re-upped here for a year instead of retirement it likely will be a year and half of that haul, Cole probably reaches 10 mil in arbitration in his final two seasons under club control.

McCann’s 16+ mil, Yuli’s 50 million dollar contract and Reddick’s 40 mil will be over when Springer is a FA and him being 30+ years of age, he’s probably the likely cheapest option among the big 4.

Marwin, Morton, etc are probably not breaking the bank. If they (hopefully) return.

As long as they continue to develop prospects with the success rate that they’ve been accustomed too guys like Tucker, Whitley, Davis, Martes, Alvarez, C Perez, etc can plug gaps of departing vets

 

This structure is huge for the Astros going forward. Paying him at least $32MM this season (might be $38MM don't know how they reworked it) and added $ as well in '19 lowers the cash going out to Altuve starting in '20. Massive props to Crane for stretching the payroll this season.

The money going out should add up to something like this:

'18: $38MM
'19: $16.5MM
'20-'25: $21.7MM

That's an amazing structure

 

I remember when I was pissed the Astros were sold to Crane, since we all figured he be a cheap owner. I'm eating that crow with a smile.

 

Good use of the world series money if there wasn't a FA worth spending it on.

 

I read that tweet to be a $21M bonus spread out in those installments. So it’d break down like this:

‘18: $17M
‘19: $16.5M
‘20-‘24: $25.8M

 

Greatest Astros player ever. Okay, maybe I'm jumping the gun there, but I'm so happy for him. I was worried about him being underpaid would affect him a little bit, but now we don't have to worry about it.

 

Figured there had to be something extra in the deal that had him making more these next two years.

Not that he’s living on peanuts, but the best player in the league deserves to get paid more during the time where he’s actually the best.

 

Cap hit for altuve from 2020-2024 is just 26 per year?! Great structure by Luhnow to pay him $21 over next 2 seasons!

 

This makes much more sense, always seemed strange for both sides to structure it the way it was originally reported.

So if true, my quick math puts our overall payroll right around 170 million for this season, which would have been a top 10 opening day payroll last season. Only about 8 million or so less than the number 5 payroll. It's still a very flexible payroll as well with 60 million or so to drop off the books, and only 3 players guaranteed in 2020.

Good to see some of this WS coin being invested back into the product,

 

Gotta say, thrilled to hear about the extension. Was definitely previously quite concerned when he had Boras as his agent. Flashbacks of Beltran's first time in Houston were running through my head.

This clip pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter:

 

7-year contract replaces existing contract; Largest contract in franchise history