WHOA, CANADA
Two-year deal prevents Brantley from joining Springer in Toronto
A year from hell has handed Houston sports fans an honorary doctorate in depression. Jolting news continues to come with each passing day. A bearded superstar was once disgruntled and is now departed. An unhappy quarterback seems to be pondering the same fate.
The Astros have not been not immune. The free-agency decisions of two outfielders loomed over their winter.
One exit was a foregone conclusion. Since he ended the season in the on-deck circle at Petco Park, the question seemed when, not if, George Springer would depart Houston. Sadness that arrived Tuesday night seemed more sentimental than substantive. Marquee free agents have left the Astros throughout the last three years without anything resembling a legitimate offer. Springer was the next in line. Houston came nowhere close to meeting his asking price — a six-year, $150 million deal he got from the Toronto Blue Jays
A clear counter to Springer’s de
parture was Michael Brantley, who always seemed the more logical option to return. Under Jim Crane’s ownership, the Astros have not doled out long-term free-agent deals, and at 33, Brantley was not a candidate for one, although his previous two years were remarkably consistent as he morphed into a clubhouse leader and Springer’s mentor.
Springer once said Brantley had “meant everything” to him. The two men share an agent. Their families are extremely close. After Springer agreed Tuesday night, reports suggested the Blue Jays were pursuing Brantley as something of a package deal.
On Wednesday morning, Sportsnet, The Athletic and ESPN were among the outlets to report that Brantley had agreed on a three-year contract with the Jays. Heartbreak again overtook Houston. The Astros started to engage with Brantley during the season and remained a possibility throughout his free agency. Now, it appeared, it was for naught.
Then hope, an emotion recently foreign to most of this city’s sports fans, arrived. Denials of a deal poured in. The aforementioned outlets retracted their reports. The Astros, perhaps reinvigorated by the scare and spurred on by the fan base’s frustration regarding Springer, sought to finish the job. Late Wednesday afternoon, they and Brantley agreed to a twoyear, $32 million contract, the exact deal former with Brantley general manager Jeff Luhnow gave him in January 2019.
That signing will go down as one of Luhnow’s most shrewd. Brantley slashed .309/.370/.497 in 194 games as an Astro, providing consistency in a lineup that craved it. Manager Dusty Baker called him the team’s leader throughout the 2020 season. Not since Will Clark had Baker seen such a tension-free, easy swing.
Early in his Astros tenure, Brantley garnered the nickname “Uncle Mike,” an ode to his stoic but professional approach to baseball. One of Brantley’s first projects was to take Springer under his guidance. Brantley helped transform Springer from a wildly talented player who suffered emotional ebbs and flows to a routineoriented, professional outfielder. Kyle Tucker, the 24year-old former top prospect, now might benefit from Brantley’s presence for two more years.
Tucker’s breakout 2020 season demonstrated he can handle everyday duties in either corner outfield spot. Brantley will man the other. Myles Straw profiles as more of a fourth outfielder but has the tools of an elite defensive center fielder. Yordan Alvarez is limited defensively, and after his surgery to repair damage in both knees last year, the team will obviously be cognizant of how much he plays. But it’s an obvious risk to assume a 34-year-old Brantley — with an extensive injury history — can play close to daily in left field.
Brantley’s return gives the Astros seven returning hitters who’ve been above average or elite during their careers. His $16 million average annual value pushes Houston’s 2021 payroll to around $193 million, according to Cots Contracts. The luxury tax threshold — which Houston crossed last year — is $210 million.
First-year general manager James Click, without prompt, has acknowledged the sport’s reported $2 billion to $3 billion revenue losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. Crane has not addressed the team’s payroll or whether he’s given a directive to be under the $210 million luxury tax threshold. During Crane’s one public appearance of
the offseason at the Houston Open golf tournament, an Astros spokesman escorted the owner away from a gaggle of media.
Before Brantley’s agreement Wednesday, Click’s two other free-agent acquisitions this winter accounted for $5.85 million against the 2021 payroll. Landing Brantley is, in all likelihood, the team’s most costly winter
move. Click has remained engaged with freeagent relievers to bolster his bullpen and might acquire a backup catcher.
Brantley’s signing could mean Straw is the team’s everyday center fielder. Top free-agent Jackie Bradley Jr. might command too high a salary — especially if the Astros wish to leave some room for trade deadline acquisitions. Trade target Kevin Kiermaier is scheduled to make $11.5 million in 2021 and $12 million in 2022 and would require a substantial return in any trade. The Astros have one Top 100 prospect in Baseball America’s most recent rankings. Their farm system, according to most outside publications, is one of the sport’s five worst.
Kiermaier defines the term “defense first.” He’s a three-time Gold Glove winner with a .720 career OPS. Straw does not have near the pedigree but profiles in an eerily similar way. He’s the team’s fastest baserunner and regarded as the organization’s best defensive outfielder. Straw has just a .649 OPS in 224 major league plate appearances.
Brantley’s reinsertion into an already potent lineup does afford the Astros leeway to experiment with Straw on a longer-term basis. Click came from a Rays organization that prioritized run prevention and defense. He saw Kiermaier almost daily for seven seasons. Straw might grow into something similar. He’s not Springer, but few men are.
Giving Springer anything close to Toronto’s deal
would have deviated from Houston’s roster building under Crane’s ownership. During his tenure, the Astros have not given anything longer than a four-year deal to a free agent.
The most lucrative contract remains Josh Reddick’s $52 million pact in 2017. The team has not built its roster by attracting the sport’s most sought-after free agents. Other than issuing a qualifying offer, it made no actual attempt to re-sign Gerrit Cole last winter. Springer encountered the same fate this season, according to multiple people familiar with the proceedings.
Trades, short-term deals, the development of drafted talent and contract extensions form the crux of the Astros’ roster. Splurging on a long-term deal for a 31year-old center fielder — however beloved he is — does not fit the plan to which Houston has adhered.
When it becomes official, Springer’s six-year contract will pay him $25 million per season. Among center fielders, only Mike Trout has a higher average annual value. Springer’s deal is the largest in Blue Jays history. Just 19 players are on the books to make more money next season than Springer. The Astros employ three of them: Jose Altuve, Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander.
Brantley now sits behind all three as the Astros’ fourth-highest paid player in 2021 — one Click decided the team could not be without.