According to Chandler Rome of the Athletic, the Astros were always planning to trade Ryan Pressly.
Despite a flurry of different Houston Astros related rumors, the last weekend in January passed without any movement on the Alex Bregman front. Speculation that the Houston Astros were trading reliever Ryan Pressly turned out to be true, and the right-hander is now a Cub. However, this didn’t end up saving the Astros all that much money, just $8.5 million in total, and some insiders say that Pressly was always going to get moved this offseason. So whether this really renews pursuit of their long-time third baseman is anyone’s guess.
We can at least hope this will be over soon.
Chandler Rome, the Houston Astros beat writer for The Athletic appeared on the Days of Roar podcast last night, and he offered some useful perspective on the Astros situation. According to Rome, the Pressly trade was always expected, and perhaps isn’t indicative of a move to up the Astros’ offer to Bregman. However, their standing offer of $156 million over six years is probably still on the table.
Listening to him, the Astros sound a bit like the 2014 Tigers. They have several big contracts to veteran players on the books, and just moved a star outfielder in Kyle Tucker because they couldn’t extend him and their farm system is gutted. They’re still a dangerous team, but they are a team whose future doesn’t look so bright two or three more years down the road. The x-factor is owner Jim Crane. Unlike the Tigers these days, the Astros have a very active owner who sees their window starting to narrow for a few years, and might decide to just help kick it open a little longer.
Meanwhile, the Tigers have a front office who clearly wants Alex Bregman badly. However you feel about Bregman and his ability to help the Tigers for years to come, Scott Harris and his front office want him despite knowing the likely cost from the beginning. The fact that there seems no urgency to just go get him, is a problem. In terms of skill set, personality, competitive drive, and durability, Bregman checks off the boxes. To reference the 2014 Tigers again; Bregman is far more Ian Kinsler than Javier Báez.
It’s hard not to conclude that there’s no real green light from ownership for such a trade, and Harris is having to pursue this without the resources to actually make it happen. There’s just no point to this in the first place is the Tigers aren’t going to decisively beat the Astros offer and actually make a push for him. The idea that Bregman would come to the Tigers for something close to the Astros’ offer just isn’t credible.
Currently, it looks like the Astros, Tigers, Red Sox , and possibly the Blue Jays, are just staring at each other. There was a report that the Red Sox wanted a four year deal with higher average annual value (AAV), but that seems like a pipedream on their part. The way this works, is that either a team says okay and improves their offer significantly, or they’re just in pick-me mode, hoping that the player just decides to choose their offer over other similar ones. Despite A.J. Hinch’s winning personality and a talented young roster, the Tigers just aren’t going to be a hot destination for free agents. The Astros would seem to be the obvious choice if no one is really going to push an offer up much closer to $200 million.
While the Bregman waiting game may continue a little while longer, it feels like a resolution to this game of chicken is coming soon. Either one of the pursuing teams is going to decide they’re really serious and offer something like a seven-year, $196 million deal, or the Astros will just increase their offer somewhat and bring Bregman back into the fold.
At this point, nothing suggests the Tigers are the team that is going to go get their guy. That’s quite unfortunate. An offseason of Alex Cobb and Gleyber Torres, with possibly some relief coming, is pretty weak after a decade of big talk from ownership about spending when the time is right on the right player. Bregman fits both parameters as well as a franchise like the Tigers could ask.
There are plenty of ways to structure such a contract to minimize their risk. Instead it feels like they’re negotiating with ownership tying one hand behind their back. If signing Bregman is really going to push them to the brink of the Ilitch family’s limits in terms of payroll, they may have to walk away. In which case Tigers’ fans may have to give up on them ever pursuing a really valuable free agent again.