Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As promised. We are joined by Chandler Rome of the Athletic,
who is at the Winter meetings and in the middle
of all of the the hubbub and the kerfuffle and
everything else that's going on surrounding your Houston Astros. So
apparently everybody is up for grabs if I am to
really read any of the latest articles out there, uh,
concerning the Houston Astros. Chandler, how dumb is this.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I don't think Josel two Bay is up for grabs.
I don't, I don't. I don't think jorn and Alvarez
is up for grabs. But I do think Fromberveldes and
Kyle Tucker are available. You know, Dana Brown basically said
Dana Brown. What Dana Brown said yesterday is what you
have to say as a GM right like it would be,
it would be negligent for him not to listen on everyone.
(00:45):
But from what I've been told and from you know,
reporting I did both before and during the Winter meetings,
you know there is legitimate interest in moving one of
Tucker or Valdez. Now, just because I say that doesn't
mean it's going to happen. It doesn't mean it's imminent
It doesn't mean, you know that they're fielding offers as
(01:06):
we speak, But there are people within the Astros organization
that are that that are that want that that this
is the course of action that they think is best
going to set them up beyond next year. And you know,
I we were in Dana's sweet yesterday and I think
the thing that stuck out to me the most, you know,
(01:26):
I asked him, if you trade one of Tucker or Valdez,
can you still win the division?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And he said yes, he thinks they can.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And when he said that, that kind of told me
everything I needed to know that while I'm certainly not
sitting here saying they're going to trade one of these guys,
it certainly is a real, real possibility.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Adding on to that, do you think there's a real
possibility that two of the three guys Valdez, Tucker, Bregman
are not Astros at the start of the twenty twenty
five season.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I think there's a real chance.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
You know, I whenever you start in the free agency
and the ashers and free agency, you can never call
them the favorites just because of how they've spent, how
they've kind of their procedure going since you know how
they operate in the free agent markets, so you know
Alex Brett. Look, they're still involved with Alex Bragman. They
(02:20):
keep echoing optimism. This is not a situation where they're out.
But when you when you start getting to the point
of the money he's going to want, and it's going.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
To start with a two.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I don't the Ashers, that's just what that's just something
they don't do. Not to say they can't or they
won't do it, but they haven't done it in the past,
and until you actually do it, it's difficult to predict
that it's.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Going to happen.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So you know, and then you look at Tucker. I
think the thing that has really kind of accentuated their
predicament is the contract monster to will get no no,
I guess because like no one else out of Houston
watches Kyle Tucker play. But like he's not Juan Soto,
but he's one of the closest things as far as
(03:06):
putting up counting stats and putting up war I mean,
he's right there with him in a lot of these categories.
And if Jan Soto got seven hundred and sixty five
million dollars and a fifty million dollar average annual value.
Kyle Tucker and his reps are going to ask for
a round a forty million dollar AAV. He's going to
enter free agency at twenty nine years old looking like
(03:29):
a ten to eleven year deal with a forty million
dollar AV. He's going to get somewhere in the four
hundred to maybe even five hundred million dollars as a
free agent. And we're talking about the Ashers not wanting
to pay Bregman. They're certainly not going to play in
that ballpark with Tucker.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
No, and I have always assumed I've got it's the
Springer effect for me. When you just kind of make
sure and tell yourself that he's not going to be
here past his current contract, it's a lot easier to
kind of accept that. But in the case of Bregman,
so I said to Wegg's last segment, if you don't
want to spend for Bregman, whatever it ends up being,
(04:04):
does that not kind of make like the Josh haters
signing a little I don't know if disingenuous is the word,
is that you were willing to spend all that money
on a closer but not an everyday guy.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Who.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
It's not really outlandish money necessarily in the grand scheme of.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Things, The Hater signing is a it's a major outlier
for how this team does business. There are not many
teams that would give ninety five million dollars to a
closer over five years. The only other team that's done
any sort of deal close to that is the same
team that just gave Wan Soto seven hundred and sixty
(04:40):
million dollars and has what we believe to be unlimited
spending power with Steve Cohen with the Mets did that
for Edwin Diaz. The Ashers don't do that, and it
is It was an odd It was just an odd
thing all around. You know that they had a closer,
they had Brian Abrady as a setup man, they had
Presley as a closer, and I wanting to make your
(05:00):
back end better, I get wanting to shorten games. But
it did just seem it's you're right, that's tough to
juxtapose giving ninety five million dollars to a closer and
then look at the face of your one of the
faces of your franchise at third base and you don't
want to go. You don't want to You know, get
up to the money that you know, the market says
(05:20):
he's worth. So yeah, it's an odd, odd pairing there,
but you know, it's one of those things that's the
decision they made and can't go back, can't go back
on it, can't redo it. So yeah, it was an
odd use of money at the time, certainly, and it
certainly now that we've got a year and some change
of sample size doesn't look much better.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Talking with Chandler Rome from the Winter Meetings in Dallas,
Major League Baseball spending time, Uh, is it realistic to
be consent for us to be talking about Okay, well,
if they don't do this, and they don't Land Alex Bregman,
well there's still Anthony Santan, dere To, Oscar Hernandez, Paul
Goldschmid and name after name after name. What are their
actual realistic names that you think might be attached to
(06:05):
the Astros' interests.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I mean, I I Jorge Polanco is is one of them.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I know that it's not gonna it's not gonna.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Arouse a lot of people, but I mean, Jorge Polanco
is a guy that they have, they have interested in.
He is at the Winter meetings I've seen him in
the lobby a couple of times. He's meeting with teams
face to face. You know, if if they're look, if
they're not going to get into the bregnants, if they're
not gonna pay that sort of money, and if they've
got a mandate to stay under the CBT, which depends
(06:35):
on who you talk to, it sounds like they they've
been told to be mindful of that and and to
stay under. You know, it's probably not gonna be guys
at the top end of the market. You know, Anthony
Santander is gonna want a three four year deal worth
a good bit of money. Christian Walker is not gonna
want a long term deal, but he's certainly gonna want
a high a V. And they're trying to move money
(06:57):
with Presley, They're trying to move money maybe with Tucker Valdez.
But I mean, at some point, like if you if
you're given a budget and you've got to stay under
the CBT, which I believe they as of now they
do have to, it's gonna be tough because the prices
are really high. I mean, you've seen it's not just
Soto like across the board. This is a This is
(07:17):
a player's market. This is a market where teams are
spending a lot of money. They are in some instances
overpaying a little bit. I mean, you just had five
teams willing to give one so to seven hundred million dollars.
So like, there are teams with pockets that are spending
money and it's not going to come cheap if you
want one of the premier free agents. And the Ashers,
(07:40):
for their whole existence have really never gotten into the
premier free agent into the pool.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
And I don't see that changing now.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So are we back to just buying championships again in
Major League Baseball? After that that nice vacation courtesy of
Jeff Luno tearing this thing down to the studs and
then building it up through the draft. I you know,
I e the right way, I guess because of the
structure of how Major League Baseball salaries are paid.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I don't know. The Orioles just did the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I mean, the Orioles won the American League East last
year doing that same sort of rebuild that the Astros did.
They were a playoff team this year. You know, you
look at some of the other like up and coming teams,
the Guardians didn't spend a ton of money. The Royals
are spending more, but you certainly wouldn't confuse them with
you know, teams that are shelling out huge, long contracts.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I mean, there are ways to do this.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You can be self sustainable by you know, having a
good farm system, by you know, locking guys up younger, like,
you know, being a little more cost efficient and knowing
picking and choosing your spots with guys. And so it's
not just about what the Dodgers are doing or what
the Mets are doing. And look, those teams are always
going to be like that, you know the Yankees. The
Yankees for their whole existence have been the team that
(08:55):
just you know, puts their their financial foot forward, flexes
their financial must So you know, the Mets can do
that now a little bit better. But there's not just
one way to do this, Like you don't have to
buy championships. I don't think we're into that portion of it,
but I mean you are seeing an uptick in owners
and ownership groups that are unafraid to spend and are
(09:18):
unafraid to go to the top of the market. And
you know, this method has worked well for the astros
like the way Jim Crane has done business has worked well.
They've gone to the playoffs eight straight years, been the
seven Alcs's like, it's not as if this is a
failed plan or it's not as if this plan doesn't work,
but you may have to reassess. You may have to
look and look at your farm system, look at kind
(09:40):
of the price of doing business.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's going up.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Like I mean, think about two years ago when Aaron
Judge resigned with the Yankees, Like everyone thought that contract like,
oh my god, Like everyone was like, this is like
the biggest contract ever. And now it's like a footnote
because Wan Soda just got seven hundred million dollars. Like
this stuff is changing rapid the way the way the
teams operates changing rapidly, and some of these teams, including
(10:05):
the astros, are gonna have to decide.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You know, do you want to put up or shut up?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And do you want to do you want to you know,
change the way you've done some things and and compete
with that.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Aaron Jones, Aaron Judge, excuse me a footnote? Are like, Judge,
I like how you said that. Chandler, we really appreciate
the time we're up against it here We will look
forward to catching up with you again soon.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
All right, thanks guys Chandler Rome from.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
The winter meetings. What will the Astrons do next?