Who will be the next Astro in line for a long term deal as the team tries to lock up their core players?
Astros: You get an extension, and you get an extension!
Mar 26, 2019, 6:53 am
Gerrit Cole. Bob Levey/Getty Images
The Astros are bucking the long-standing trend in Major League Baseball of waiting to pay players big money contracts until after they lose the leverage of team control, and paying players before they have to. In doing so, they have made several of their players very happy and in the process forced other teams to re-evaluate their internal processes and follow suit in order to stay competitive and in good favor with players and agents.
For example, they had Alex Bregman under team control for several years and were only on the hook for a minimal raise of around $41,500 after arbitration, making his contract for 2019 a paltry $640,500. To put that in perspective, the league minimum is $555,000. That's quite a bargain for a player that finished in the top 5 of American League MVP voting, pounded out 31 home runs, 51 doubles, 103 RBI and .926 OPS.
The system is obviously broken and needs to be a major issue to be negotiated in the next collective bargaining agreement, which expires after the 2021 season. The Astros were smart enough and once again ahead of the curve in setting a trend of rewarding players that deserve and have earned a salary competitive with the better players at their given position, regardless of how many years of team control they have remaining.
They took care of Bregman with a 6 year, $100 million dollar deal and extended Ace Justin Verlander and bullpen standout, Ryan Pressly, as well. The message was sent and heard loud and clear around MLB, if you want to be in the good graces of players and agents both in free agency and in the draft, then you need to throw the rules of the past out the window and take care of the players who have earned a competitive raise based on a trend of outplaying their current deal. So, with 3 key contributors to the teams' recent success joining Jose Altuve as players that are wrapped up for the foreseeable future, the question now becomes, who's next?
Carlos Correa and George Springer are definitely worthy candidates to be next in line, as both have lived up to the billing they got from the time the Astros drafted them. As both players took the baseball world by storm at every stop during their meteoric rise through the minor leagues, it was only a matter of time before the arrived on the big league scene.
Once donning an Astros uniform they continued to thrive as they were both key contributors in bringing Houston its first World Series title. Springer was the MVP of the fall classic, while Correa had key hits throughout the historic run through the postseason. The problem is Correa has been plagued by injuries over the last few years and that can give the organization cause for concern in giving him a long term deal. I believe the team will see how he plays this season and if he is able to play a full schedule and avoid another serious medical set back, Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane will explore wrapping him up long term.
As for Springer, he has been the victim of the frugal former owner of the team, Drayton McClain as well as his front office trained to follow his lead. They held him back to get extra years of team control with no intention of extending him at fair market value. He definitely outplayed his contract in multiple years but it wasn't until Crane bought the team and hired Luhnow that the franchise attempted to right the wrongs of the past and take care of George. He is currently in the middle of a 2 year, $24 million dollar deal and with him being arbitration eligible in 2020, they have a little time before they need to try and lock him into a long term contract. That leaves one big-time player that needs to be taken care of between now and the end of the 2019 season if at all possible.
Gerrit Cole is set to be a free agent and hit the open market at the end of this season. He is coming off arguably the best season of his career setting a career high in strikeouts with 276, while posting a 15-5 record with a 2.88 ERA. The k's and winning percentage were career bests and his ERA was second to the 2015 campaign when he notched a 2.60 with the Pirates.
He is a hard-throwing, inning eating, workhorse that has been dominant ever since he joined the Astros in a trade prior to the 2018 season. At only 28 years old he seems poised and ready to lead a teams' rotation for years to come. He is a quiet guy who has really fit right in with the Astros clubhouse and has really flourished under the watchful eye of pitching coach Brett Strom as well as Verlander, who has been in his shoes and can speak from experience when giving him advice and guidance.
He is on the record in stating how much he has enjoyed the city of Houston, his teammates and the winning environment of the organization and that it would be "nice" to reach an agreement to stay in the blue and orange going forward. So far the team has yet to reach out to Cole's agent, Scott Boras who has a reputation of being a tough negotiator and very hard to please. With that said and with Verlander's signing sending a message to Cole's camp, if the team agrees with me that he deserves a similar type deal and the courtesy of a meeting to get the ball rolling and explore the particulars of a new deal, there is no time like the present.
If they wait, they run the risk of Cole hitting the open market and watching his price tag sail through the roof while also ruffling the feathers of both player and agent who undoubtedly feel like if Verlander was worthy of an extension, they should be too. The precedence has been set, the time is right, the only remaining question is, will the price be right and can they get it done sometime this season? I'm looking at you Jeff Luhnow, there's only one way to find out and the clock is ticking
With overnight temperatures dipping into the 20s this week in Houston, it seems good timing to have the warm thoughts of baseball being back, at least spring training games. The Astros have more shakiness about their squad than they have had in nearly a decade, but the Astros still have a nucleus of an American League West contender. With the exits of Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman, it’s just a notably different nucleus than in recent years.
Jose Altuve is the last remaining mainstay of the greatest era in Astros’ history, and he is one of the biggest stories of their preseason as he for the time being at least is left fielder Jose Altuve. By every indication he is embracing the challenge with class and energy. The obvious impetus for test driving the move is the soon-to-be 35 years old Altuve’s defensive deterioration. It can be tough for the player himself to notice that his range has declined. The voiding of defensive shifts after the 2022 season shined a brighter light on Altuve’s D decline. Still, last season Altuve made his ninth All-Star team and despite also displaying some offensive decline remained the clearly best offensive second baseman in the American League. It’s part of the tradeoff of reducing the defensive workload on Yordan Alvarez, and hoping to upgrade defensively at second with some combo of Mauricio Dubon, Brendan Rodgers, or other.
The natural comparison in Astros’ history of a franchise icon losing his defensive spot and making a late-career position change is to Craig Biggio. Biggio’s All-Star days were behind him when the Astros moved him from second base to center field for the 2003 season because of the signing of free agent Jeff Kent. It spoke to the athlete Biggio was that at 37 years old he could make the move at all. After not quite a season and a half in center, Biggio moved to left when the Astros traded for young stud center fielder Carlos Beltran. Both Kent and Beltran left in free agency after the 2004 season, and Biggio moved back to second for the final three seasons of his career.
Second basemen are often second basemen and not shortstops in part because of their throwing arms. Altuve’s throwing arm will be an issue in left field. Even though Daikin Park has the smallest square footage of fair territory in Major League Baseball because of its left to left-center field dimensions, Altuve’s arm will be a liability. In understandably wanting to put an optimistic spin on things, manager Joe Espada and general manager Dana Brown have talked of how Altuve will be able to get momentum behind throws more so than when playing second. That’s true when camping under a fly ball in the outfield. That is not true when Altuve will have to cut off balls hit toward the left field line, or cutting across into the left-center field gap. There will be balls that would be singles when hit to other left fielders that will become doubles when Altuve has to play them, and baserunners will go from first to third and second to home much more readily. As an infielder Altuve has always been outstanding at running down pop-ups, so there is reason to believe he’ll be solid tracking fly balls in the outfield. However, the reality of a guy who is five feet six inches tall (in spikes) is that there will be the occasional fly ball or line drive that is beyond his grasp that more “normal” sized outfielders would grab. Try to name a good outfielder who stood shorter than five-foot-nine...
Here’s one: Hall of Famer Tim Raines (also originally a second baseman) was (and presumably still is!) five-foot-eight.
Here's another: Hall of Famer Hack Wilson was five-six. Four times he led the National League in home runs topped by a whopping 56 in 1930 when he set the still standing record of 191 runs batted in for a single season.
And another: Hall of Famer five-foot-four “Wee” Willie Keeler. Who last played in 1910.
Just a bit outside
Another element new to the Grapefruit League in Florida (and Cactus League in Arizona) this year is the limited use of what Major League Baseball is calling the Automated Ball Strike System. The ABS is likely coming to regular season games next year. This spring will be our first look at its use in big league games. Home plate umpires making ball and strike calls will not be going the way of the dinosaur. Challenges can be made until a team is wrong twice. Significantly, only the batter, pitcher, or catcher can challenge and must do so within two seconds of the pitch being caught. No dugout input allowed. No time to watch a replay.
The Astros’ spring park in West Palm Beach is not among the 13 facilities set up with ABS cameras. That seems silly given that the Astros share the place with the Washington Nationals. More use would be gotten from, and more data collected there than will be from a park with half the spring games played in it.
The countdown to Opening Day is on. Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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