ASTROS: SIGNS POINT TO THIS LIKELY BEING END OF ERA.
Springer, Brantley, Reddick heading into free agency
SAN DIEGO — The final image is not of a mammoth homerun or a sliding catch in center field, but of George Springer donning an orange jersey, standing on deck, and not getting an opportunity to save the Astros’ season.
Springer held his bat and tracked Aledmys Diaz’s fly ball to right field. Yuli Gurriel ran to second base only because he had to. The Astros’ fate was sealed.
At the moment Manuel Margot squeezed the final out of Tampa’s 4-2 win in Game 7 of the ALCS on Saturday, an era of Astros baseball may have ended.
Winter always brings free agent decisions, but none in recent memory have been as important as those that await. The Astros have a franchise player headed to free agency, along with two other
starting outfielders.
Justin Verlander will not pitch in 2021, either, creating a compelling winter for first-year general manager James Click.
“It sucks because it just feels like we were right there,” Game 7 starter Lance McCullers Jr. said. “You want to do it for the guys like George, the guys like Brant, guys who have been so instrumental in rebuilding this organization, being a face of this organization. It may be the last time you share a jerseywith guys you love. It sucks, man. It sucks.”
Springer, Michael Brantley and Josh Reddick all perhaps played their final games as Astros on Saturday. The pandemic prevented a proper sendoff from Houston fans who’ve watched Brantley for two seasons, Reddick for four and Springer for seven.
The three men played 1,454 regular season games as Astros. Springer is the team’s emotional leader who plays with reckless abandon. Brantley mentored him — and countless others in Houston’s clubhouse — for the past two seasons.
Reddick patrolled the clubhouse as an approachable veteran, amanwho instituted wrestling belts and robes for players of the game — rituals that became routine during the team’s renaissance.
“I loved every second of playing with those guys,” third baseman Alex Bregmansaid. “They left it all on the field every single time they took the field. I learned a lot from all of them. Getting to growup in the big leagues around those guys was pretty special.
“I’ll be friendswith them for life.”
For five months, Springer has avoided any discussion of his immediate future. Twenty minutes after the season ended Saturday, he maintained the same demeanor. Springer lamented the result, but did not consider whether it was his final game as an Astro.
“I haven’t really thought about that yet,” Springer said. “Our season just ended, and I’m more focused on kind of what’s happening now, what happened tonight, and I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Brantley and Reddick weren’t made available after the game. It is clear Click must rebuild his outfield, but his plan for doing so is a mystery. He’s a firstyear general manager and has no tendencies to analyze.
Kyle Tucker’s emergence solidifies one of the three outfield spots Click must address. That is the team’s most glaring winter need, but Click also will shop for bullpen reinforcements and perhaps another veteran starting pitcher.
In the past few winters, the Astros seemed more focused on pre-free agent extensions — Jose Altuve got one in 2018, while Justin Verlander, Alex Bregman and Ryan Pressly got them in 2019. But it’s impossible to know if that will carry over to this winter, after a pandemic that wrecked revenues across the sport
and the world.
In June, owner JimCrane said the team is “in a position to be aggressive, no matter what the market looks like.”
The team has $125,916,666 committed to seven players on guaranteed contracts for 2021. In February, Crane said he “made it known” to Springer and his representatives that the team wanted to resign him.
Springer will be themost sought-after position player on the open market. His stellar September and playoff explosion only increased his value. The Astros certainly will extend him a qualifying offer — and Springer almost surely will decline it — to get draft pick compensation if they don’t reunite.
Springer will command the sort of free-agent deal the Astros haven’t negotiated in Crane’s tenure. Reddick’s four-year, $52 million contract in 2017 remains the longest and most lucrative of Crane’s ownership.
Springer’s deal will dwarf that in terms of total money, but the length of
any potential contract is intriguing.
Mookie Betts got a 12year, $365 million deal from the Dodgers this summer, removing any doubt that Springer is at the top of this free agent class. Betts is 28, has an AL MVP and is worth 45.3 wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.
Springer turned 31 in September and has aWorld Series MVP. But he has a 27.3 bWAR, and his age decreases the likelihood teams will give Springer the sort of long-term assurance Betts received.
“It’s been special,” Springer said of his time in Houston. “The city (and) the fans have really embraced our team, and it’s been fun.”
Whether the Astros will extend Brantley a qualifying offer, expected to be worth $18.9 million, is an intriguing question.
Brantley played the final year of a two-year, $32 million deal this season. He is 33 but shows no signs of decline. Brantley, whose .840 OPS during the regular season was the fourth-highest
of his 10-year career, could be looking for a multiyear deal.
Reddick’s already acknowledged he’s going to play next season on a shortterm deal, wherever he is. His offensive production has plummeted since a spectacular 2017 season that aided Houston’sWorld Series title run that ended with Springer as the MVPof that seven-game series.
But on Saturday, what could be their last acts came more than 1,000 miles away from Minute Maid Park in a bid for a historic comeback after losing the first three games in a seven-game series. Of the three, only Brantley got a hit.
Springer’s final at-bat was perhaps the most frustrating, the most unbecoming of what he’s meant to this franchise since his delayed call-up in 2014.
When he came up in the eighth inning against Nick Anderson, Martin Maldonado had worked a walk in the nine-hole, the sort of mistake Springer almost always makes teams pay for. Springer’s 19 postseason home runs are the most in Astros history, and he has 70 hits in 64 playoff games.
Anderson threwhim two pitches. The second sailed on the outer half, and Springer swung anyway, rolling a weak grounder to third base for a crucial second out.
Brantley bounced out to end the sixth against Anderson, making Rays manager Kevin Cash appear prophetic for his early hook of starter CharlieMorton.
“This one hurts, because the couple of guys thatmay not be here anymore,” McCullers said. “When you have a group of guys like that and everything that our teamhas been through, you really want to pull off this last victory. We showed what kind of team we are. We showed the fight that we have in us. As I’ve said, it’s a couple days off, and we get going for 2021.”
But who will be there with him?