If you were prevented from making the most money you could over a short period you might not be happy about it. I love Springer and I’m glad he was here. But, he has a right to go play wherever he wants regardless of our feelings.
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I’m not in the least upset with Springer. He never showed his ass to the fans or the organization like Cole did and earned the right to leave and get paid more money.
JimR, how much less should he have accepted from the Astros? One, two or three less years? $5M per year less? $10M per year less? Where is the line for which you would have found it acceptable to leave for greener pastures. I ask because there has to be one. There for most anyone regarding compensation for a job well done. Yes, many will take less to work at a place the love, but again there is a line, no?
How do we know the Astros even made a quality offer to him? There was almost no news about. Even with Cole, I remember Crane stating they would make a run at him, but I’ve seen nothing in Springer. Maybe I’ve missed it? What if all the Astros offered was $4 years, $84M total? At his age I could see that being an offer the Astros might’ve extended…take it or leave it. Unless someone leaks some info we’ll never know.
They called him up on April 16, 2014, a week into the season. This meant that he wouldn’t get 6 full years of service time until after 2020, rather than after 2019 if he’d been on the Opening Day roster. They delayed his FA by pretty much a full year by waiting a week, making him get 7 seasons in. He was very upset about this and said all along he’d never forget it. He didn’t.
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The silence from the front office has been weird. It might be just signaling but it seems like bad manners.
I don’t blame the Astros for manipulating George’s service time the way they did and I don’t blame George for leaving. We have no idea how anyone felt toward each other at the end thus far and maybe soon we’ll learn more about that. It would be strange if we didn’t.
I also don’t think George and Carlos or Carlos and lots of people have the same stuff. I can’t find it in my heart to blame players who’d rather move on from the pariah team. I like to think I wouldn’t do that if I were them but Jesus, you only get one career.
Told you my 1950s views would not get much (any?) support here. Guys who get pissed about stuff like this when they are paid millions of dollars to play baseball make me laugh.
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The team would have been better if he was up a week before. I feel that loyalty should go both ways.
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I don’t think there was any doubt at the time that it was a business decision by the team, and that the team’s expectation was that at the end of control the team and Springer would split ways. Maybe the team made efforts after that to reach a longer term agreement with Springer, but I don’t remember hearing of any. In any event the team got what it bargained for.
Bench: In 2014 the team would have been better? How much better with Springer? How many fewer games lost? Of course, you do. You are the TZ’s Marvin Miller.
The team tried at least once, IIRC, to get Springer long term. He said no.
The team got ~$20M from Springer for free. It was a good deal for the Stros.
During spring training in 2014, Springer and his agent rejected a reported seven-year contract worth $23 million, despite having not yet reached the major leagues.[16]
good to know.
I think he has a ranch near Worcester.
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His agent had nothing to do with it, and that was a big part of the problem. I’ve mentioned this repeatedly as have others. It doesn’t seem like the information has registered terribly firmly. The Astros made up an excuse to bring him to Houston without his agent and tried to strong arm him into signing a fucked up, Singleton like contract. It was incredibly stupid, and although the GM who did that is no longer with the team, George obviously did not forget the incident. Nor should he have.
Yes, chuck, everyone knows how he got fucked as a “rookie”. It cost him 20+ million dollars. No wonder he didn’t sign it. That’s the worst contract I’ve ever seen.
For what it’s worth, Kris Bryant, same situation but not a FA yet, is pissed off at the Cubs.
I know this thread is supposed to be about Correa, not Springer, but this discussion goes back to the questions I have on the Hot Stove thread. Do we know whether the Astros even made an offer besides the $18.9 million qualifying offer that was actually a pay cut from 2020 had a full season been played and was clearly intended just to make sure they got draft picks?
It would be one thing if the Astros had made an offer comparable to what Toronto made and Springer’s reply was no because of what happened in 2014. But given the payroll and the luxury tax threshold, it seems unlikely that the Astros would have come anywhere close to the dollars or years of the Blue Jays deal. It would be more than just a hometown discount.
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As for Correa, the luxury tax rules are far too Byzantine for me to figure out whether the Astros could back-load a contract to stay under the threshold for a few years once Verlander and Greinke’s huge contracts come off the payroll in 2022. Heck, I don’t even know whether Grienke’s full $35 million counts toward the Astros’ luxury tax liability given that Arizona is paying $10.33 million.
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I’ve never heard that the Stros made a competitive offer to Springer at all.
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That’s my understanding too based on what has been reported. My guess is he wasn’t in their plans because of the luxury tax.
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Hell, I was pleasantly shocked that the re-signed Brantley.
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Backloading doesn’t work as AAV is used in the payroll tax calculation. Clubs have been know to stretch out the length of a contract to minimize the CBT hit but that generally only works if the player is older and not likely to hit free agency again before his playing days are over (which ofc may not be the case with CC).
As one would surmise the CBT hit is in fact $24MM.
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