Astros should just say no to Soto
Kyle Tucker deserves a contract extension. The American League All-Star reserve outfielder should at least be making Yordan Alvarez money in the near future.
Alvarez, who recently agreed to a win-win $115 million extension to remain with the Astros, would have been the biggest must-see bat in Monday’s Home Run Derby inside Dodger Stadium if the superslugger had participated in the summer festivities.
Jose Altuve, an All-Star for the eighth time, was rewarded with a major extension in 2018.
Alex Bregman, Ryan Pressly and Lance McCullers Jr. also received extensions from what is currently the second-best team in the American League.
The annually contending Astros trading for Juan Soto after the 23-year-old Washington outfielder reportedly turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract to remain with the not-yet-rebuilding Nationals? No. Nope. Nada.
No, thank you.
Unless it’s somehow written into Soto’s current contract that the Astros will win the World Series again this year and their 2019 playoff enemy will help return them to the promised land.
Back in the summer heat of 2018, the Astros almost traded for then-National Bryce Harper.
“There was an agreement in principle in place, and it didn’t get over the finish line for whatever reason, out of our control. But yeah, we had interest,” then-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said in February 2019. “We had worked out an agreement with players both ways.”
The Astros kept winning and winning after, fortunately, missing out on Harper and have returned to the World Series twice.
Back in the summer of 2021, some criticized GM James Click for not doing enough to aid the Astros at the trade deadline.
Stars such as Kris Bryant, Craig Kimbrel, Max Scherzer, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo floated in the rumor winds as the deadline approached. Click balanced the Astros’ immediate present with the long-term future and avoided the big names.
“Looking around the roster, (the bullpen) was the area that we felt like that needed the most attention and also could get the most attention without
sacrificing the long-term goals of the franchise,” Click said last July. “If our offense continues to perform at the level that it has, if our starting pitching continues to perform at the level that it has, I think we have put together a roster that should be very, very capable of competing for a World Series championship.”
He was 100 percent right. The Astros won 95 games without Justin Verlander, got hot in October, hosted Game 1 of the Fall Classic and fell two wins short of another world championship.
Considering how measured and balanced Click has been since he started running Luhnow’s old show with the suddenly remade Astros, just thinking about attaching a new $500 million-ish contract to Houston’s Major League Baseball team will likely place the GM on the injured list.
Remember that the (Scott) Boras Corporation is attached to Soto’s murky baseball future, and the idea of one of the sport’s most talented young players suddenly becoming an Astro becomes even more unlikely.
Not to mention that Soto is in the middle of a down year (.250 batting average on the worst team in MLB) and would be changing leagues midstream if he were traded to a team that is again World Series title or bust in 2022.
Down year is relative because Soto also has 20 home runs, 57 runs, 43 RBIs, 79 walks and a .901 OPS on a horrible team — just imagine those stats if he were surrounded by better talent.
He also already has two All-Star selections, two Silver Slugger awards and a batting title, was set to participate in Monday’s Home Run Derby, and helped Washington edge the Astros during the final seven games of 2019.
One way to look at it: If the Yankees, Dodgers and Rangers are in the running for Soto — who could be a multiyear rental before his massive payday — then the Astros should definitely make a few phone calls. A rotating outfield of Michael Brantley, Alvarez, Tucker and Soto would be absurd in the best way.
The other half of reality: Alvarez is worth about $600 million in Soto dollars, the Astros recently allowed Carlos Correa to move to Minnesota over a $105 million difference of opinion, and the Jim Crane-era Astros have never offered anything close to the franchisechanging cash that Soto/Boras are demanding.
Washington has fallen apart since its 2019 trophy. The Nats lost 97 games last season and entered this All-Star break with an embarrassing .330 winning percentage.
The Astros are just beginning to get their farm system fully working again after the fallout from their illegal signstealing punishments in 2020.
Jeremy Peña’s first major contract is also getting more expensive with each passing month. And as I mentioned at the start, Tucker is in line for Alvarez-like money and an extension that will keep him wearing orange and blue for years to come.
The best part about this Astros era is the annual winning. Year after year, season after season, playoffs after playoffs.
That was the vision Crane had when a wrecking ball started the rebuild in 2012. That vision still remains with five Astros as 2022 All-Stars and Dusty Baker’s current team a step ahead of last year’s World Series squad.
Unless Crane and Click are about to trash their business plan, trading the farm for Soto makes zero sense right now. Soto is good, but he’s not Mike Trout, and the $426 million that the Angels have promised Trout has Los Angeles’ other team 14 games below .500 with a replacement manager.
Keep winning big in October, Astros. Leave the $500 million contracts to baseball’s losers.