June 14, 2024 • 8 mins
Chandler Rome of The Athletic talks the news of the day, the Astros have released Jose Abreu. The Athletic's beat writer joins The A-Team every week. He talks about what led up to this decision to be made. Plus, what the Astros course of action will be going forward.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Chandler Rome, who joined US Weekly, writes about Major League Baseball, and
of course you are Houston Astros forthe Athletics been obviously following this unfortunate story
from parts of last year, intothis offseason and throughout this regular season where
a bread just simply could not helpthis team with his bat. The timing
of it, the Astros saying theyhad a certain amount of time they thought
(00:22):
they needed to give him to kindof show one way or the other if
his time in West Palm Beach wasgoing to do anything, and they made
the ultimate decision today. How doyou think this kind of was Mets in
the clubhouse with the Astros telling joseA Bray that it was over. I
think on a human level, there'sguys in there that are upset just because
(00:42):
I mean, he's a human being. He's a guy that engendered a lot
of respect in that clubhouse. Again, and I've reiterated this over and over
again, this is not for alack of effort. This is not a
guy that was a bad clubhouse,guy that wasn't doing early work, that
wasn't I mean, this is aguy that just he just couldn't find it.
(01:03):
And I think on a human level. There's some there's some upset people
in the clubhouse, but I thinkall of them two are not naive to
what's going on. Like they canread the numbers just like you and I
can. They can read the standingsjust like you and I can. And
I think you know, I'm notspeaking from authority here, but just conventional
(01:26):
wisdom and logic would tell me that, you know, they understood that this
was untenable, that they couldn't keeprunning him out there, they couldn't keep
him on the active roster. Imean, it wasn't even a matter of
they couldn't start him, that theycouldn't keep him on the roster, just
because he hamstrung so much of whatthis team wanted to do, how Joe
(01:47):
Aspata has managed this team since thebeginning of the season. It just it
made it impossible for them to carryhim. It doesn't sound like there was
an inflection point, but I dowonder about how Monday's game went with you
know, they had no one elseto take that at that against Camilla Duval
in the ninth inning in San Francisco. And look, I'm not saying that
someone else would have done better.Camilla Duvall is an elite closer, an
(02:12):
elite reliever. There's no good matchupfor him. But I think we all
knew what Jose Abreu would do whenhe went up there, and it just
it manifested itself. And then Ithink the Astros from then on really understood
that they'd take some urgent action.Well, and I look, I asked
this of Jeff Blum earlier. Ifyou got Joe a spot in his first
year's manager, everything that's on hisplate and quite a few of those things
(02:37):
not going the way that you wouldlike for them to go, I have
to think this has got to bea weight lifted off of him. Even
if he's never ever going to publiclyadmit that, I would agree with you.
I think again, he will neverpublicly acknowledge it, but this was
not the roster that he envisioned havingat this point in the season. And
(02:59):
quite frankly, I think there's someother people in the organization, even Dana
Brown, that this was not theroster they thought they would have. They
were hamstrung, obviously. You knowthere's some financial implications here, but it
was time like they couldn't afford tocarry this on any longer. They had
lost the They had lost the luxuryof being able to experiment, of being
(03:23):
able to give him some time toget himself together. I mean, you
can't do that when you're seven gamesunder five hundred, when the Mariners keep
winning and keep distancing themselves in thedivision, and when you're six games back
in the wild card. Like Ithought, it was very interesting that Dana
Brown today kind of unprompted, goes, you know, we have twenty seven
days until the trade deadline. Wehave twelve games until we reached the halfway
(03:46):
point of the season. It waspretty clear that they had a I don't
know what the day was. Idon't know if it was today, but
they had a soft timeline in theirmind, like this is the law as
long as we can go with him. And I do wonder if what happened
in San Francisco, just the inflexibilityof that roster being on full display.
(04:08):
I wonder if that hastened the processa little bit. It's an interesting situation
because of that. I mean,it's a simple question. I asked it
earlier to some of our listeners inac Do you believe if the Astros were
say just a game or two,maybe over five hundred, maybe thirty six
and thirty three, they would havehandled it much differently because quite clearly there
are a lot more problems with thisteam than just to brave. But you
(04:30):
know about how much time you giveit and how much time you have left.
You think if if their record wassignificantly different, then this would have
been dealt with differently. I do. I think it ends with the same
result. I just don't think itmaybe happens today because, like I said,
like when you're thirty six and thirtythree and you're only like maybe a
game back in the wild Card andfour games back in the division, like
(04:54):
okay, Like let him play againstthe Tigers, let him play against the
White Sox coming up, two teamsthat are not great that the Tigers can
really pitch it, but the WhiteSox can't do anything. Like let him
play against these teams. You knowthat they have a soft stretch of their
schedule coming up. It would haveprobably been one of those things where maybe
he makes it to the All StarBreak, but they couldn't keep this going.
(05:16):
Just where they are they are,they have been in I don't want
to say desperation mode, but they'vebeen they've been in urgency mode for a
while now, and look, it'snot fair to paint this as Jose Abraw
is the reason that the Astros areseven games under five hundred and underperforming.
That is not the case. Heis not the only issue with this team,
and getting him off the roster isnot going to solve everything. But
(05:42):
it is impossible to deny that whenhe was in West Palm Beach, when
they had demoted him, you couldjust tell that there was a different kind
of feeling around the team. AndI'm not saying that has to do with
anything of him being in the clubhouseor anything. I'm just saying the way
they could deploy their roster were somuch more dynamic, They had more athleticism,
they could mix and match later ingames, Joe a spot. It
(06:04):
could create platoon matchups and advantages againstleverage relievers, and he just couldn't do
that with a Brave You saw onthe roster, and it was pretty clear
something had to happen. Hunter Brown, Justin Verlander, Spencer Arraghetti the three
starters expected to go tonight, Tomorrowand Sunday against the Tigers. Verlanders probably
(06:25):
best started the season came against theTigers. But is it nuts for me
to say as we head into thosethree individual starts, there's more concern about
how JV pitches on Saturday versus howHunter or Spencer pitches Friday Sunday, respectively.
I mean, yeah, they needOrlander to be really good. I
wouldn't say his last I wouldn't sayhis last two starts have been bad.
(06:47):
They've just it's not been vintage Verlander. I mean. But the thing about
Verlanders and the thing that makes themso good is that when he doesn't have
his best stuff, he'll still grindyou through five or six innings and he'll
still find a way to get out. He'll limit the damage and he's been
able to do that his last coupleof starts. But yeah, ay,
with how thin this rotation is,and with Kyle Tucker saw in the IL,
(07:09):
with Yaner Diaz just now coming backfrom that index finger injury, you
know, their lineup's a little bitlimited. So they're gonna need their pitching
to carry them. And I thinkas long as fromber Bell does and Berlin
are atop the rotation, they're gonnahave to do that. And uh,
you know, Hunter Brown and Spenceraragedy have both been god since they've really
stepped up for this team when they'veneeded it. Now, Hunter Brown could
(07:30):
pitch the game of his life tonightand he still may end up the loser
because Derek Scougle, who's gonna gofor the Tigers, is the best,
maybe the best pitcher in baseball rightnow, just having an unreal season that
it's gonna be difficult for the Ashersto hit him. So, h Hunter
Brown's gonna have no margin for errortonight against a team that quite frankly doesn't
(07:53):
hit very well. This is nota good This is not a good Tigers
lineup. This is one that thiscould be a low scoring game, one
that Hunter Brown, you know,is gonna have to be almost perfect in
because I don't see Terrek School willgive it an intch. Well, that's
wonderful, really really good news.At Chandler Rome of the Athletic you can
catch all his work right there,and you can catch him with us each
and every week here on the Ateam Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you
(08:16):
being flexible as always a little bitof a different week. But you know
what, it ended up being thebest case scenario since this is a very
very big news day for you.We appreciate the time on a very busy
day. I'm just glad we didn'ttalk about those tweets, but we knocked
that out last second we did.I mean, if you want, we
could, right, okay, allright, all right chandeler Roam of the
(08:37):
Athletic here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Chandler Rome, who joined US Weekly, writes about Major League Baseball, and
of course you are Houston Astros forthe Athletics been obviously following this unfortunate story
from parts of last year, intothis offseason and throughout this regular season where
a bread just simply could not helpthis team with his bat. The timing
of it, the Astros saying theyhad a certain amount of time they thought
(00:22):
they needed to give him to kindof show one way or the other if
his time in West Palm Beach wasgoing to do anything, and they made
the ultimate decision today. How doyou think this kind of was Mets in
the clubhouse with the Astros telling joseA Bray that it was over. I
think on a human level, there'sguys in there that are upset just because
(00:42):
I mean, he's a human being. He's a guy that engendered a lot
of respect in that clubhouse. Again, and I've reiterated this over and over
again, this is not for alack of effort. This is not a
guy that was a bad clubhouse,guy that wasn't doing early work, that
wasn't I mean, this is aguy that just he just couldn't find it.
(01:03):
And I think on a human level. There's some there's some upset people
in the clubhouse, but I thinkall of them two are not naive to
what's going on. Like they canread the numbers just like you and I
can. They can read the standingsjust like you and I can. And
I think you know, I'm notspeaking from authority here, but just conventional
(01:26):
wisdom and logic would tell me that, you know, they understood that this
was untenable, that they couldn't keeprunning him out there, they couldn't keep
him on the active roster. Imean, it wasn't even a matter of
they couldn't start him, that theycouldn't keep him on the roster, just
because he hamstrung so much of whatthis team wanted to do, how Joe
(01:47):
Aspata has managed this team since thebeginning of the season. It just it
made it impossible for them to carryhim. It doesn't sound like there was
an inflection point, but I dowonder about how Monday's game went with you
know, they had no one elseto take that at that against Camilla Duval
in the ninth inning in San Francisco. And look, I'm not saying that
someone else would have done better.Camilla Duvall is an elite closer, an
(02:12):
elite reliever. There's no good matchupfor him. But I think we all
knew what Jose Abreu would do whenhe went up there, and it just
it manifested itself. And then Ithink the Astros from then on really understood
that they'd take some urgent action.Well, and I look, I asked
this of Jeff Blum earlier. Ifyou got Joe a spot in his first
year's manager, everything that's on hisplate and quite a few of those things
(02:37):
not going the way that you wouldlike for them to go, I have
to think this has got to bea weight lifted off of him. Even
if he's never ever going to publiclyadmit that, I would agree with you.
I think again, he will neverpublicly acknowledge it, but this was
not the roster that he envisioned havingat this point in the season. And
(02:59):
quite frankly, I think there's someother people in the organization, even Dana
Brown, that this was not theroster they thought they would have. They
were hamstrung, obviously. You knowthere's some financial implications here, but it
was time like they couldn't afford tocarry this on any longer. They had
lost the They had lost the luxuryof being able to experiment, of being
(03:23):
able to give him some time toget himself together. I mean, you
can't do that when you're seven gamesunder five hundred, when the Mariners keep
winning and keep distancing themselves in thedivision, and when you're six games back
in the wild card. Like Ithought, it was very interesting that Dana
Brown today kind of unprompted, goes, you know, we have twenty seven
days until the trade deadline. Wehave twelve games until we reached the halfway
(03:46):
point of the season. It waspretty clear that they had a I don't
know what the day was. Idon't know if it was today, but
they had a soft timeline in theirmind, like this is the law as
long as we can go with him. And I do wonder if what happened
in San Francisco, just the inflexibilityof that roster being on full display.
(04:08):
I wonder if that hastened the processa little bit. It's an interesting situation
because of that. I mean,it's a simple question. I asked it
earlier to some of our listeners inac Do you believe if the Astros were
say just a game or two,maybe over five hundred, maybe thirty six
and thirty three, they would havehandled it much differently because quite clearly there
are a lot more problems with thisteam than just to brave. But you
(04:30):
know about how much time you giveit and how much time you have left.
You think if if their record wassignificantly different, then this would have
been dealt with differently. I do. I think it ends with the same
result. I just don't think itmaybe happens today because, like I said,
like when you're thirty six and thirtythree and you're only like maybe a
game back in the wild Card andfour games back in the division, like
(04:54):
okay, Like let him play againstthe Tigers, let him play against the
White Sox coming up, two teamsthat are not great that the Tigers can
really pitch it, but the WhiteSox can't do anything. Like let him
play against these teams. You knowthat they have a soft stretch of their
schedule coming up. It would haveprobably been one of those things where maybe
he makes it to the All StarBreak, but they couldn't keep this going.
(05:16):
Just where they are they are,they have been in I don't want
to say desperation mode, but they'vebeen they've been in urgency mode for a
while now, and look, it'snot fair to paint this as Jose Abraw
is the reason that the Astros areseven games under five hundred and underperforming.
That is not the case. Heis not the only issue with this team,
and getting him off the roster isnot going to solve everything. But
(05:42):
it is impossible to deny that whenhe was in West Palm Beach, when
they had demoted him, you couldjust tell that there was a different kind
of feeling around the team. AndI'm not saying that has to do with
anything of him being in the clubhouseor anything. I'm just saying the way
they could deploy their roster were somuch more dynamic, They had more athleticism,
they could mix and match later ingames, Joe a spot. It
(06:04):
could create platoon matchups and advantages againstleverage relievers, and he just couldn't do
that with a Brave You saw onthe roster, and it was pretty clear
something had to happen. Hunter Brown, Justin Verlander, Spencer Arraghetti the three
starters expected to go tonight, Tomorrowand Sunday against the Tigers. Verlanders probably
(06:25):
best started the season came against theTigers. But is it nuts for me
to say as we head into thosethree individual starts, there's more concern about
how JV pitches on Saturday versus howHunter or Spencer pitches Friday Sunday, respectively.
I mean, yeah, they needOrlander to be really good. I
wouldn't say his last I wouldn't sayhis last two starts have been bad.
(06:47):
They've just it's not been vintage Verlander. I mean. But the thing about
Verlanders and the thing that makes themso good is that when he doesn't have
his best stuff, he'll still grindyou through five or six innings and he'll
still find a way to get out. He'll limit the damage and he's been
able to do that his last coupleof starts. But yeah, ay,
with how thin this rotation is,and with Kyle Tucker saw in the IL,
(07:09):
with Yaner Diaz just now coming backfrom that index finger injury, you
know, their lineup's a little bitlimited. So they're gonna need their pitching
to carry them. And I thinkas long as fromber Bell does and Berlin
are atop the rotation, they're gonnahave to do that. And uh,
you know, Hunter Brown and Spenceraragedy have both been god since they've really
stepped up for this team when they'veneeded it. Now, Hunter Brown could
(07:30):
pitch the game of his life tonightand he still may end up the loser
because Derek Scougle, who's gonna gofor the Tigers, is the best,
maybe the best pitcher in baseball rightnow, just having an unreal season that
it's gonna be difficult for the Ashersto hit him. So, h Hunter
Brown's gonna have no margin for errortonight against a team that quite frankly doesn't
(07:53):
hit very well. This is nota good This is not a good Tigers
lineup. This is one that thiscould be a low scoring game, one
that Hunter Brown, you know,is gonna have to be almost perfect in
because I don't see Terrek School willgive it an intch. Well, that's
wonderful, really really good news.At Chandler Rome of the Athletic you can
catch all his work right there,and you can catch him with us each
and every week here on the Ateam Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you
(08:16):
being flexible as always a little bitof a different week. But you know
what, it ended up being thebest case scenario since this is a very
very big news day for you.We appreciate the time on a very busy
day. I'm just glad we didn'ttalk about those tweets, but we knocked
that out last second we did.I mean, if you want, we
could, right, okay, allright, all right chandeler Roam of the
(08:37):
Athletic here on Sports Talk seven ninety
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