He said those numbers were after he calculated Mets paying for part of Verlander's contract so unfortunately if his numbers are accurate, not much to spend unless Crane decides to go over the tax line.
It got cut off, but he includes that in the rest of the tweet. Here is the link he is reading it from: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/astros
Eww. Yeah, I was looking at actual payroll not the CBT payroll. Guess I'm not used to looking at it on my phone.
Payroll for 2024 (Scroll down for CBT): -211,609,365 (Subtract $26,250,000 towards JV from the Mets in 2024) I think that is already figured in.
The fringe benefits and add on charges on the payroll is massive. As an employer for a lot of years I get it- the employee cost is way higher than their actual salary, but 26M for health, retirement, Fico taxes etc are a wild number.
Not sure how much better this makes us simply because I think Brown will be as good or better than Cease next year, and while I think Dubon is a strong utility guy he would be well below average as an everyday SS in my opinion But the biggest thing is, this would add roughly 18-19 million to our salary which not only would put us into the tax (which I won't believe Crane will do untill I see it) but would also guarantee that no one other than Altuve gets extended
Framber has 4 years in a row of sub 3.5 era, Cease has done that exactly once in his career. 2022 certainly is the outlier in his career numbers. Framber certainly can be a head case, but because of our expectations of him he gets a bad rap overall. Dude gave us 200 innings of 3.45 era this year. Here is the list of pitchers who threw that many innings and had a better ERA Gerritt Cole Logan Webb
Robert was one of the top 20 most valuable position players in MLB this season. He’s a borderline superstar. That and the potential for Cease to be a frontline SP again are the reasons for the trade. As I said upthread, the Astros shouldn’t make that trade if they think Brown or Pena are going to take a major step forward.
I would prefer we keep Dubon and add another versatile utility guy to the team As much as I hated the lineups Dusty threw out there so often last year, he didn't have much versatility, and the back end of the roster was as bad as any we have had during this run of success
Understand, and there is a chance that this deal would make us better, although there is also a chance it doesn't I just don't see us adding 18 million to our salary hoping those things happen. Heck, I don't think we would add 18 million in salary if we could get those guys for prospects and keep our mlb guys
Robert, Tucker, Alvarez, McCormick . . . That's about as crazy of an outfield/DH I've heard of in quite some time. Feels historic . . . but also makes me extremely nervous.
Kinda hurts when you also bench 2 of your top 6 bats... because "everyone plays on my team"... Julks and Bligh had no business getting that many at bats
Would it make sense to effectively have Meyers and Singleton in a platoon for the 9th everyday hitter, with Meyers playing CF (with McCormick in LF and Alvarez at DH) against lefties and Singleton DH’ing against righties (with McCormick in CF and Alvarez in LF)? I am still hanging on to belief in both those players, as I think Meyers can be an above average nearly-everyday CF and Singleton can be a very productive power bat. And given the financial and farm situation, to me it makes sense to give those 2 another half season to see if they can break out, then if they don’t work you hopefully have a prospect take a big step to claim the everyday LF job (Loperfido, Corona, Barber, Leon, Melton, Dezenzo, Brewer, Wagner, Daniels, and Dirden all could be ready by next July). Otherwise you’d still have Dubon and can always address it at the deadline.
I wish fans - generally; not you, specifically, @CinematicFusion - would stop treating the CBT like a salary cap. Crane's refusal to cross it puts both a clock and a ceiling on this era, and as such, we should not carry this water for him. We should, instead, hold his feet to the fire.
This. Draft pick penalties don’t even start until a team goes $40M over the cap. Going $20M over the cap would cost Crane another $4M. That’s tiddlywinks. Rather than judging by the CBT, we should be looking at where Houston ranks among other teams. With all the fan support and the size of their media market, Houston should easily be able to field a payroll in the top 10 of the league while they are competitive. I wouldn’t ever expect them to be in the top 3, and we shouldn’t be throwing a major fit if it’s as low as 12th, but in that 4-12 range is a totally reasonable expectation, with them usually much closer to 4th than 12th. Houston was 7th at the end of 2023.
