I seriously doubt Cole will get exteneded, would probably require too many years, and we have so many potential high upside arms on the way. Personally I wish we had one more solid starter for 2019, but long term I couldn't see them signing Cole to big money long term right now Springer on the other hand, I could easily see them extending. It wouldn't take huge money (in the 2019 baseball sense) and you could structure it to where the extension kicks in his free agency year, when Brantley and Yuli money is coming off the books. Springer has proven to come up big in the biggest situations, if he was gonna get 25 million a year over 5+ years i'd say he is gone, but he isn't getting that becoming a free agent at 31 years old And what can we say about Jim Crane, for all of the "cheap" comments and everything else early on, the dude said he would spend when the time came, and By God he is doing exactly what he said!! Best owner in Houston Sports History and it isn't close
I've said it before, but after '21 they just need to give him the handshake Roger Clemens perpetual 1-year contract for as long as he wants it.
Luhnow said it's a "3 year contract with 2 additional years." Anyone seen the breakdown? I was thinking they would bump his salary this year since they are only paying 20 million to lower the AAV, but haven't seen any breakdown on the contract.
I hadn’t seen that but that makes a hell of a lot of sense potentially. You could then call it a 3 year 94 million dollar contract with Detroit in the hook for 8 million and his AAV going forward is only 28 per year to HOUSTON as opposed to 33. Makes sense.
It sounds like the Astros are calling it a 3 year 94 million dollar deal. That lowers his luxury tax salary to 31.33 million so that would add 3.33 million to the payroll in terms of luxury tax this season since he was making 28 million this year before the new deal and Detroit is still picking up the 8 million.
I’m not an expert and I could be wrong, but I think you get to offset that 8 from Detroit so it’s be 28 and change all 3 years. I think.
Damn, payroll will be ~$180M next season (actual amount, luxury tax amount will be higher). They’ll only have ~$65M tied up in the pitching staff (1/2 of which will go to Verlander), but they’ll have ~$115 going to position players. Would not be surprised to see some cost cutting moves (Gurriel and Reddick traded with prospects to dump their salary, Marisnick non-tendered, Devenski or Peacock traded for prospects). $180M doesn’t leave any room for significant additions, and they will probably project to be pretty bad at C and 1B (with potential need to add 1 more SP).
Reddick and Marisnick absolutely. Peacock and Devo will depend on performance. I highly doubt it is worth it to trade Peacock if he repeats what he did in 2017, Devo I'm less confident in. From what I have seen from Crane, I think he would be willing to dip a toe into the luxury tax for one season if we have to. 2019 will be a huge year in determining our future course of action. White,Kemp,Tucker,Alvarez,Whitley,James,Bukauskas,Martin,Valdez, and a few others should all get looks at the MLB level this season. If we don't get multiple important contributors out of that group then we are almost certainly looking at taking a step back after 2020. The good thing with this FO, I think it could be a quick retool (QO Springer, possibly trade Verlander and Correa after 2020). But I expect we will develop some good players this season, and we will have a lot of financial breathing room heading into 2021 to keep winning.
Losing Cole or Springer is too risky. We've got to sign. Although we do have potential impact coming up on the mound. Losing Gurriel is a major gap, there's nobody to take his place, but I'm willing to take the risk. Losing Peacock, Devenski, and Marisnik would have limited impact so I'd be ok with that. The franchise is gaining in value. Now is not the time to lose talent. We are a mid-level franchise looking to take the leap into the big time. Whitely looks like the big deal. Bigger picture is establishing an all time great brand which just prints money. This is the window. Lose talent, and we go into a long blackhole of mediocrity.
This front office isn't the Texans, What would give you any reason to think they would let that happen when they have pissed excellence since their first day on the job. The truly great organizations replace talent when in their best interest, they don't hold onto established players by any means necessary to the fault of the bigger picture (cough, cough...Clowney).
We are not a truly great organization yet. Build that brand first. And then we can attract consistent pipeline of talented front office and players. Losing Cole and Springer, that's a step backward. Both have a long bright future. They built a machine, but now they need to brand it. Brand it, and nobody ever leaves. But right now, you can't assume our front office sticks around, or the players.
WTF does that mean, "brand it". No amount of "branding" will allow the Astros to spend 250 million on players and another 50 million in taxes. Even the f**king Yankees and Dodgers aren't willing to do that regularly. Players are gonna leave, you should just accept that now.
We can become the Yankees and Dodgers. That's branding. Figuring out the story, personality and image of the team that is behind the identity and messages you send out to the world. You pointed out two great examples. Win and pay. It's hard, but you stay the course and people will come, not leave.
