On Wednesday, the Boston Red Sox accepted the conditions with the interior field player Alex Bregman on a three -year pact worth $ 120 million. (The contract would include significant reports, considerably reducing its current value, as well as the deactivation opportunities after the first and second seasons.) Although Bregman has the adequacy of the Red Sox is naturally the main subject of discussion on Thursday, let’s not lose No view of Thursday that this decision means for its former club: the Astros of Houston.
Bregman had, of course, spent the duration of his professional career with the astros, originally joining them as a choice n ° 2 in the draft of 2015. Since then, he had had great individual success and at the level of ‘team, making a pair of star matches and winning two World Series with the Houston Club perpetually good. Now, Bregman will follow the cramps of certain astros stars in front of him, notably George Springer and Carlos Correa, leaving for a greater salary thanks to a free agency.
Where does that leave the astros? Discover it thanks to the use of three subtitles.
1. PARDES, Altuve remains in place
Bregman’s departure seemed inevitable entering the winter. So much so that the Astros voltiseur exchanged the Kyle Tucker aerobed in Chicago Cubs in December for a return that scored two third basic players: the veteran Isaac Paredes and the prospect praised Cam Smith. Houston also signed the first goal player of the free agent Christian Walker, assuring that they would have new faces in the two field positions.
Then a fun thing happened. The Bregman free agency persisted and the astros seemed to resurface in the negotiations. Astros’ interest in retaining Bregman has reached a point where they not only exchanged the lifter Ryan pressed in a salary dump, but instead where the second goal Jose Altuve has publicly indicated that he would move to the left field S ‘He would release Keystone’s key for a Bregman back.
In the end, the Astros obviously did not keep Bregman. In turn, this means that Astros will not have to slide Altuve or Paredes around the diamond to welcome Bregman.
PARDES, in particular, now becomes one of the key parts of the Houston range. Bregman’s power numbers have greatly benefited from playing Houston and having crawford boxes to aim; This same dynamic should help PARDES, undoubtedly the best known modern player to overcome the otherwise modest output speed by pulling the ball in high frequency air.
2. What to do with the flexibility of the payroll
We do not know how ready to spend on Bregman, or, in addition to relevance, how ready they are ready to spend. What East The projection of the payroll drops by approximately $ 218 million. This puts $ 26 million below the place where they ended last season and $ 23 million under the first luxury tax line, According to Fangraphs estimates.
The teams tend to keep around $ 10 million in reserve for seasonal additions. If we make two assumptions – that the astros prevent $ 10 million for July and they do not want to spend in the tax area – then there are about 10 to 12 million dollars before the opening day.
Since Astros should use Ben Gamel in the left field most of the time, it goes without saying that they will remain in search of help on the outside field. Of course, having money to spend does not necessarily generate this money. There are not many Remaining free agents which would make sense for the astros to prioritize. The upper strikers are Justin Turner and JD Martinez – none of which would be suitable for the Houston list.
Maybe there is a business to have, or maybe the astros will keep their powder dry and hope rather that internal options -Shay Whitcomb, Zach Dezenzo, Kenedy Corona, Pedro León and Jacob Melton among them – can make its way in the programming before the summer which takes place.
3. Impact project
Another aspect that deserves to be underlined is that Bregman’s departure means for the Houston draft class.
Without entering the Nitty Gritty, remember that players who refuse the qualification offer (as Bregman did) have serious recovery selection implications attached to their signatures – both for the teams that lose them And for the teams that sign them. The exact implications are based on a variety of factors, in particular the value of the contract and the statutes of taxpayers and the sharing of income.
In short, the Astros had to sacrifice their second and fifth highest choice in Ink Walker. Now they will receive a compensatory choice after the fourth round for having lost Bregman. It may not seem to be a big problem, but it means that the astros will make four of the 16 5 best choices instead of only three.
Who knows, perhaps this additional choice will allow Astros and Director General Dana Brown – a talented editor who helped build the nucleus of Atlanta Braves – to find another jewel.
