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AL Notes: Orioles, Astros, Red Sox

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The Orioles figure to have something of a logjam in the outfield next year, as established starters Anthony Santander, Cedric Mullins, and Austin Hays will be joined by top prospects Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad on the grass in the majors at some point next year. As noted by Roch Kubatko of MASN, that could come as soon as the start of the 2024 season, as GM Mike Elias has indicated that both Cowser and Kjerstad could be in the mix for the Opening Day roster next season. That leaves the Orioles with five starting caliber outfielders headed into the 2024 campaign, and that ignores depth options like Kyle Stowers and Ryan McKenna.

Needless to say, given the club’s logjam, the club figures to field interest on their outfielders this offseason, with Kubatko noting that “industry speculation” suggests the Orioles could look to move one of their five primary outfield options in order to free up playing time. Among them, Kubatko indicates that Santander and Hays have drawn the most interest, while the Orioles are likely to consider Cowser in particular to be untouchable in trade talks. Subtracting either Santander or Hays from the club’s 2024 outfield mix would leave them with a very lefty-heavy outfield, as each of Mullins, Cowser, Kjerstad, and Stowers bat left-handed. Given that, Santander might be the most sensible player for the club to move as a switch-hitter with just one year of control remaining, compared to Hays’s two years of team control and righty bat.

More from the American League…

  • Dusty Baker has announced his retirement from managing, prompting the Astros to begin a managerial search. That search, of course, is still in its early stages with Houston having just been eliminated from postseason contention less than a week ago. Houston bench coach Joe Espada and former Angels and Tigers manager Brad Ausmus are both reportedly under consideration for the position, but questions remain as to who exactly will conduct the club’s managerial search. Chandler Rome of The Athletic discussed that uncertainty earlier this week, noting that owner Jim Crane and adviser Jeff Bagwell both wield considerable influence in the front office, even with GM Dana Brown at the helm of the baseball operations department. Rome notes that Bagwell was particularly influential in the club’s 2022-23 offseason following the departure of former GM James Click last November, while Crane was a key engineer of the Justin Verlander trade at the deadline this year. Rome indicates that the duo’s influence over baseball operations will continue with the upcoming managerial search, with each having “immense say” over the next manager alongside Brown.
  • The Chaim Bloom era of Red Sox baseball is now officially in the rearview mirror as the club hired former major league pitcher and Cubs executive Craig Breslow as the club’s new chief baseball officer earlier this week. MassLive’s Sean McAdam discussed the importance of Breslow and manager Alex Cora building a strong relationship together in the early stages of their partnership, and in doing so noted that the relationship between Bloom and Cora frayed during the “last year or so” of Bloom’s tenure at the helm. While Cora was frustrated with Bloom’s lack of urgency in returning to contention, McAdam notes that the pair’s relationship was complicated by Cora temporarily departing the club during the 2019-20 offseason, mere months after Bloom was hired to replace Dave Dombrowski. Fortunately for the Red Sox, Breslow and Cora should have no such roadblock as they look to build a strong working relationship going forward.

Dana Brown Discusses Astros’ Attempted Contract Extensions

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The Astros hired Dana Brown to be the club’s new general manager in January, plucking him from his previous job as vice president of scouting for Atlanta. Since then, he’s been quite open about his desire to replicate that club’s penchant for signing core players to long-term extensions, though his tune has been changing this week.

Brown’s previous employer has been very aggressive at locking up players to lengthy deals, with Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider, Sean Murphy, Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris all recently putting pen to paper. Since switching clubs, Brown has mentioned Cristian Javier, Framber Valdez, Kyle Tucker, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman as some of the players he’s hoping to be similarly locked up with his new club.

The Javier extension was crossed off the list last month but it seems the plans for the others have hit a few snags since then, as it was reported last night that the club isn’t very close to a deal in its talks with either Valdez and Tucker. Brown provided some comments on the situation to reporters today, including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, acknowledging that he “felt a little less optimistic” about getting deals done with those two players.

The reporting yesterday indicated that Brown expected to have more information in the next 48 hours. That timeline still seems to be holding today, with Brown saying he’s expecting to hear from the representatives of both players by Thursday afternoon, though he doesn’t want to characterize it as a deadline. “We’re trying to have conversations and, at some point, the player wants to play,” Brown said. “We can still talk. It’s not a deadline. It’s like ‘Hey, I’ll get back to you in the next 24-48 hours and give you an update.’ It’s not that it’s over. It’s just that, for right now, we may decide to wait a little bit.”

Despite Brown’s initial eagerness to get these deals done, he’s now operating in a new organization. As Rome points out, the largest extension that the Astros have given out under owner Jim Crane is the five-year, $151MM deal for Altuve, followed by six years and $115MM for Yordan Alvarez and then five years and $100MM for Bregman. Brown suggests that Crane is willing to go a bit beyond the five-year mark, but not substantially.

“I think Jim is willing to (go) further, I just don’t know that I have the comfort of going as long as, say, maybe I’ll have to to get Tucker done,” Brown said. “I just don’t like big deals. If they’re open for something a little more than five, maybe I would be open to doing that. I’m sure Jim would be, too. I think Jim is very open. But doing 10-year deals, I don’t know if we’ll ever get to that point. That’s a lot of years, man. I’m not comfortable doing 10. I don’t mind doing 10 if you get a guy to the big leagues in the early 20s, really feel like he’s a big piece of the franchise, face of the franchise, and get him done for 10 and he finishes it out at 32-33. I’m OK with that,” Brown continued. “These deals that go beyond 33, for me, I’m uncomfortable. The analytics on that is not good.”

Rome adds that he asked Brown about the fact that Atlanta, under president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, gave Olson $168MM over eight years and then $212MM over ten years to Riley. “Alex was the boss there. I don’t know if I would have done those deals because I’m just not a 10-year guy. But I would do multiple years. I would even go up to seven.” Riley’s ten-year deal is set to go through 2032, when he will be in his age-35 season. Olson’s will go through 2029, which will also be his age-35 season. Atlanta has a club option on each player for their respective age-36 seasons. According to Brown’s framing, those deals both went beyond his comfort zone but that Anthopoulos had a greater willingness to lengthen those deals to get them done.

Tucker is 26 years old right now and is set to make $5MM this season after losing his arbitration battle to the club. If the Astros were to offer him a seven-year extension that begins next season, it would go through 2030, which would be Tucker’s age-33 campaign. Taking Brown’s comments at face value, it seems that is where his comfort zone ends. It’s possible that this is merely a negotiating tactic and that the willingness to do a longer deal is greater than he’s letting on. But it’s also possible that the reason a deal hasn’t come together yet is that Tucker’s camp is trying to push for a longer pact that goes into his mid-3os, like those secured by Olson and Riley.

Whether the Astros can bridge those gaps and get extensions done remains to be seen, but it seems Brown’s preference would be for them to come together soon. “I don’t like to do much of it during the season, if you can avoid that,” he says. In the grand scheme of things, these comments perhaps point to Brown changing course from his time in Atlanta, either because that is his prerogative or the organization’s. If one takes him at his word, then this means the club will perhaps have less risk tolerance than Atlanta and will therefore be less likely to hand out extensions to its players. The club’s eventual actions will be more important than words in establishing the reputation, but the outward suggestion is that the blueprint in Houston won’t be exactly the same as it was in Atlanta.

Astros Unlikely To Hire GM Before End Of Year

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Despite the Astros cruising to a 106-56 record in 2022, rumors began to trickle out during the season that there was some tension between owner Jim Crane and general manager James Click, with the latter on an expiring contract. Despite those reports, the assumption of many was that the success of the team would compel the parties to work something out eventually. However, despite the Astros making the ALCS for a sixth straight year and winning their second World Series title in that time, Click was eventually fired just a few days after the title celebration, as was assistant GM Scott Powers.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan provides a deep dive behind the scenes, taking a look at how such an unusual situation came to be. Interested readers are encouraged to check out the full piece for all the details, but the essence is that Crane didn’t like Click’s approach to the job as much as he liked that of Jeff Luhnow. Luhnow, of course, was fired after the sign-stealing scandal was revealed, with Click quickly hired to replace him.

Over the past year, Crane has seemingly taken a more hands-on approach to the team. He apparently was the one who closed the deal to bring Verlander back for 2022. He also felt the organization needed more “baseball men,” bringing in former big leaguers Jeff Bagwell and Reggie Jackson to take part in front office meetings. He also reportedly blocked a deadline deal, on the advice of manager Dusty Baker, that would have sent José Urquidy to the Cubs for Willson Contreras.

With Click and Powers now gone, it seems as though Crane is running the show, at least to some degree. Bill Firkus, recently promoted to assistant general manager, seems to be handling day-to-day operations. Andrew Ball and Charles Cook, who also have the title of assistant general manager, are also involved to some degree. But according to Passan, Crane personally negotiated the three-year, $34.5MM deal given to reliever Rafael Montero last week and he seems to be directly involved in Verlander’s free agency yet again.

It might continue in this ad hoc fashion for some time as well, with Crane telling Brian McTaggart of MLB.com that he plans to take his time with his search for Click’s replacement, probably not making a hire until the calendar flips to 2023. “I’m going to take my time on it this time,” Crane says. “Last time, I was in a little crunch. I didn’t have a GM and didn’t have a manager. We’ve got a pretty solid baseball ops team that’s been around. Firkus and Charles Cook have been with the team a while. … We’re going to interview a bunch of people and see where we land with that. I don’t expect anything to happen before the first of the year.”

Passan floats some names as candidates who cover a spectrum of styles. Sig Mejdal, formerly of the Astros but now with the Orioles, is known for his expertise on the analytical side of the game. While former player and manager Brad Ausmus is thrown out as someone with an arguably more traditional approach. Passan adds that Ausmus was recently in Houston and met with Bagwell, though it’s unclear if they discussed the open GM position. Even when a new GM is hired, all signs seem to point to Crane staying heavily involved.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty in terms of what lies ahead for the Astros, but the idea of them turning their backs on their calculated approach has the potential to alter the trajectory of the franchise. The club’s current golden age has been achieved not by wild spending, but largely by player development and quantitative analysis. They’ve never given a free agent a deal longer than four years and only crossed the competitive balance tax threshold once, in 2020. Justin Verlander took a sizeable investment but the rest of their rotation was homegrown, either through the draft (Lance McCullers Jr.) or international free agency (Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, Urquidy).

The position player core is similar, with most of the lineup having been drafted by the club and sometimes subsequently extended. Even when players do reach free agency, like George Springer and Carlos Correa, the club has been savvy at replacing them internally. Their primary shortstop and center fielder this year were Jeremy Peña, a third round draft choice playing in his rookie year, and Chas McCormick, a 21st round pick playing in his second season.

That makes it especially eyebrow-raising that Bagwell, who apparently is one of Crane’s most trusted advisors, criticized the club’s player development system. From an outside perspective, it would seem that the Astros’ recent run of success would be credited in large part to their successes in that department, but perhaps Bagwell and Crane don’t see it exactly that way.

Though it seems the Astros are making a pivot on the heels of their second World Series title, we likely won’t know for some time exactly how drastic the changes are. Perhaps any suggestion of a sea change is overblown and the club will continue largely on a familiar path. Though if they do indeed move away from what has made them so successful, it would make for a stunning and fascinating turn of events. For now, the Astros are pushing forward without Click and Powers, and without Pete Putila and Oz Ocampo, two front office members who recently left for the Giants and Marlins, respectively. It seems that Crane is now the one driving the bus, and time will tell where he takes it.

Astros Fire Assistant General Manager Scott Powers

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The Houston Astros have fired assistant general manager Scott Powers, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. This comes on the heels of the firing of general manager James Click from earlier today. As noted by Passan, Click hired Powers away from the Dodgers back in January.

The Astros parting ways with Click was the first domino to fall in a surprising sequence of events following the Astros winning the 2022 World Series. Despite reports of friction between Click and owner Jim Crane, it had been speculated by many that a World Series victory would nonetheless be enough to overcome those tensions and keep the gravy train rolling. Instead, it seems that the hurdles have been too high to mount, despite the Astros emerging triumphant in 2022. After Click was removed from the picture, it had been hypothesized that some of his hires would also be let go, and that has indeed come to pass with Powers getting sent out the door behind Click.

Powers was the Dodgers director of quantitative analysis up until he was hired by the Astros in January of 2022. Also hired as an AGM at that time was Andrew Ball, who had worked with Click in the Rays’ system. No word has been released about his status but it’s fair to wonder at this point if Crane is determined at this point to dismiss anyone he deems to be a Click guy. It’s worth reiterating that Click was hired after the Astros’ sign-stealing efforts in 2017 came to light after the 2019 season. President of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow was fired and Click hired shortly thereafter. Although the team has continued performing well, it seems that things haven’t been as rosy behind the scenes. Despite the firings, Click and Powers and anyone else who ends up leaving will surely get plenty of interest from other teams around the league based on their track record of results on the field.

The Astros are now facing a large amount of front office turnover. In addition to Click and Powers, and whatever other moves may or may not be coming, a few executives have already departed for jobs with other organizations. A month ago, the Giants hired Pete Putila, another Houston AGM, to be their general manager. Oz Ocampo, a long-time scout and executive with the Astros, was recently hired to be an AGM with the Marlins.

This puts the Astros in a strange and perhaps unprecedented position. On the one hand, they are reigning world champions, having just hoisted the trophy less than a week ago. That’s just the latest success marker in a long run of results, as they have qualified for the ALCS in each of the last six seasons. On the other hand, they will have to quickly scramble to fill out a front office that is hemorrhaging members while making plans for their title defense in 2023.

Many have wondered if David Stearns could be a candidate due to a couple of factors. He recently stepped down from his role as the Brewers’ president of baseball operations and into a more advisory position, and also was an AGM with the Astros before going to Milwaukee. However, he is still under contract for one more year and has said he’s not going anywhere, reiterating that position today to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. “I’m just going to reiterate what I said previously: I’m not going anywhere,” Stearns said “I’m committed to advising Mark [Attanasio, Milwaukee’s principal owner] and [general manager Matt Arnold] in any way I can. And that’s that.”

Dusty Baker Will Return As Astros Manager In 2023

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November 9: The Astros and owner Jim Crane have made it official, announcing that Baker will return on a one-year contract for 2023.

November 8, 5:35 pm: Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle relays word from Click, who says he is still “in discussions” about his future.

4:45 pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that Baker and Click each received one-year contracts for 2023.

9:33 am: Fresh off his the first World Series title of his illustrious managerial career, Dusty Baker confirmed to Mark Berman of Houston’s FOX 26 that he’ll return to the team in 2023 (Twitter link). A deal has not yet been finalized, but Baker tells Berman: “I’ll be back, but we’re working on it. It’s as simple as that.”

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported shortly before Baker’s quote that Astros owner Jim Crane has already spoken to both Baker and general manager James Click about their futures and is planning to formally extend them contract offers for the 2023 season.

Named Houston’s manager in the immediate aftermath of punishments being meted out from the team’s 2017 sign-stealing scandal, Baker took the reins in a tumultuous situation and has seamlessly overseen not only a stabilizing period for the franchise but a continuous run of success. He’s now been at the helm of the Astros for the past three seasons, compiling a 230-154 record in that time, winning a pair of American League pennants and, just this weekend, adding another World Series title to the record books.

Baker has helped to oversee the breakout of one of baseball’s best young pitching staffs, serving as skipper while Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy have all established themselves as quality MLB hurlers — with Valdez, in particular, blossoming to the point that he ought to finish in the top five of this year’s American League Cy Young voting (though teammate Justin Verlander will be the favorite to win the award).

The 2022 season not only brought Baker his first World Series win as a manager but also saw him eclipse the 2000-win mark, making him just the 12th person to ever reach that milestone. Baker’s 2093 managerial wins currently place him ninth all-time, but another go-around in Houston will afford him the opportunity to take aim at Joe McCarthy (2125 wins), Bucky Harris (2158 wins) and Sparky Anderson (2194 wins) next season.

Baker would need a 102-win campaign to surpass Anderson and move into sole possession of sixth-place on the all-time list, but given the quality of the Houston core, that’s hardly an unattainable goal. His Astros just won 106 games in 2022, after all, and the team’s only free agent of true note is Verlander, who’ll surely be a target if and when he declines his player option and returns to the open market.

As for Click, there’s been a good bit of speculation about his future with the team amid multiple reports of friction between him and Crane. It’d be a surprise to see any team move on from its top baseball operations executive on the heels of a World Series victory, however, so it seems that even if the two parties don’t always see eye to eye, Crane will offer Click the opportunity to return on a new contract for at least the 2023 campaign. That forthcoming offer, of course, doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Click will return, but it’s nevertheless of clear note that Crane will at least ostensibly place the ball in his GM’s court.

Astros Owner Nixed Willson Contreras Deal At Trade Deadline

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Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was one of the biggest trade candidates not to be moved at the summer trade deadline, but according to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Astros came close to completing a deal for the All-Star. Astros starter Jose Urquidy would’ve gone to Chicago in a straight one-for-one swap, which was agreed upon pending ownership approval. The Astros never got the green light from ownership, the deal collapsed, and the players remained with their respective teams.

The Astros were clearly in the market for a catcher at the deadline, and while they missed out on acquiring Contreras, they did turn around and acquire Christian Vazquez from the Red Sox. Vazquez and Contreras profile as very different catchers though, with Vazquez a defense-first player and Contreras posing more of a threat with the bat. There’s little consequence of course, as the Astros won their second World Series title last night but the proposed trade and the reasons it fell through sheds some interesting light on the front office workings of the Astros, particularly given the future of GM James Click is far from certain.

Contreras seemed almost certain to be traded at the deadline. He was, after all, a pending free agent who was hitting .252/.365/.453 with 14 home runs on July 31 for a Cubs team that was 41-60 at the time. While there were some concerns around his defense, his bat made up for that, and he seemed an ideal guy to split time between catcher and designated hitter for a team looking for an offensive boost. Given the Astros already had Martin Maldonado entrenched as their regular catcher, that sort of role may have been exactly what the Astros were looking for from Contreras.

The cost for Houston would have been Urquidy, a mid-rotation starter who still had three years of club control remaining (after the 2022 season). Urquidy, signed out of Mexico as an international free agent in 2015, wound up tossing 164 1/3 innings of 3.94 ERA ball this year for Houston. Urquidy strikes out around 20% of batters, while walking them just 5% of the time. He is a bit prone to the home run ball, and gave up just over one per start in 2022. On the whole though, Urquidy was a dependable starter who had a big fan in manager Dusty Baker.

“Much as I like Willson Contreras, Urquidy was one of our best pitchers then,” Baker told Passan. “I needed a guy that wasn’t going to complain about not playing every day. And this is his [free agent] year. See, that’s tough. When you trade for a player in his [free agent] year. Everybody’s about numbers and stuff, and I can’t blame them, no doubt. But that’s not what we needed.”

It appears that owner Jim Crane thought the same, and did not give Click approval to go through with the trade. Given both Click and Baker are now off-contract, it’s an interesting insight into the inner workings of the Astros as they prepare to make some key decisions on the future of the franchise following their championship.

As it turned out, the trade didn’t go through, Contreras played out a strong platform year with the Cubs and the Astros picked up Vazquez for minor leaguers Wilyer Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez. The Cubs will surely tender Contreras a qualifying offer which he’ll likely reject, and instead hit the open market as the top free agent catcher available. Vazquez, too, will be a free agent, though may be not as sought after as Contreras. Urquidy will go through arbitration for the first time, and look to build off a solid season in the Astros’ rotation.

Latest On James Click, Dusty Baker

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The Astros wrapped up the top seed in the American League last night, having already secured 102 wins. It’s Houston’s second straight AL West title and third playoff appearance in as many years under general manager James Click and skipper Dusty Baker. The Astros have advanced at least as far as the AL Championship Series in each of the past two seasons, and the AL road to the World Series will again run through Houston.

Given that immense success, it’d seem to go without saying that Houston was satisfied with the franchise’s trajectory. However, both Click and Baker are in the final year of their contracts, and some uncertainty about the organization’s leadership future looms. Click signed a three-year deal when he took over baseball operations in February 2020, while the club inked Baker to a one-year extension last offseason. Owner Jim Crane told Mark Berman of Fox 26 (Twitter link) last month he’s “aware both contracts are up and we’ll address them at the end of the season.”

While there’s no questioning the team’s on-field success, it does not seem a mere formality that both Click and Baker will be retained. During an appearance on the Houston Chronicle’s Texas Sports Nation podcast last weekend (Twitter link), Chandler Rome noted the contract status for Click and Baker “has been a topic that has been whispered about in the Astros organization, people both in and out of the clubhouse, since the beginning of the season.” Rome added that, particularly in Click’s case, “everybody that I talk to (emphasizes) that this is not just a rubber-stamp thing. This is not just, ’we’re going to extend him and everyone’s going to be happy and be merry.’ There is some real speculation, some real intrigue, that James Click is not going to be back with the Astros after this season.”

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic examined the situation yesterday, writing that some friction between Crane and Click could explain the organization’s hesitance to hand him a long-term extension. According to Rosenthal, Crane has taken on a very active role in baseball operations and tends to favor more bold additions than Click, whose approach to the roster is generally more restrained. Rosenthal notes that Click and Baker sometimes differ on the extent to which analytics should be integrated into in-game decisions but suggests that’s not as notable as whatever divide there may be between Click and Crane.

Both Click and Baker were brought in under unexpected circumstances. After the extent of the Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing operation was made public during the 2019-20 offseason, MLB handed down suspensions for then-GM Jeff Lunhow and manager A.J. Hinch. Houston promptly fired both after the league’s investigation. Crane tabbed Baker as Hinch’s replacement, then hired Click out of the Rays front office a few days later. It was a reversal of the typical course of action, in which the front office head plays a key role in deciding on the manager.

Crane has maintained he had no knowledge of the team’s sign-stealing operation. It’s not clear whether he’s subsequently taken on a more active role in baseball operations as a direct response to the fallout from that scheme. Either way, Rosenthal writes that “Crane does not trust Click the way he trusted Luhnow, with whom he worked for eight seasons.”

To be clear, neither Rome nor Rosenthal suggests Click’s or Baker’s time in the organization is definitively nearing its end. The two have adeptly led the team past the sign-stealing fallout with little drop-off in performance. They’re as well-positioned as any club (aside from perhaps the Dodgers) to make a deep postseason run in 2022. Both Rome and Rosenthal point out that it’d seem unlikely Crane makes any changes at the top if the Astros find playoff success this year, particularly if they win the World Series.

It’s nevertheless notable that questions persist given the consistent excellence the Astros have maintained for the past three years. If ownership does decide to tie Click’s and/or Baker’s future to the results of this year’s postseason, there’d be a lot riding on the extremely small sample of a playoff series. That’s not a great way to make decisions of this magnitude, but the reported tension in the Minute Maid Park offices will at least lead to some speculation about the franchise’s direction until Click’s and Baker’s situations are decided at year’s end.

Justin Verlander Still Awaiting Qualifying Offer Decision

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Astros owner and chairman Jim Crane insists that his club has the resources they need to improve their ball club, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Crane did not mince words when speaking of his team needs, simply calling out the fact that the Astros will be looking for pitching and a shortstop, per Rome.

The latter need is the more finite and interesting of the two. Carlos Correa will presumably walk as a free agent, despite the resources that Crane touts as being available to his club. Certainly, for a club that has made three World Series appearances over the past five years, there should be no shortage of financial might.

The decision to let Correa walk, should they do so, is more a calculated evaluation of resource allocation. Still, it’s interesting for Crane to voice that position as one of need. Jeremy Pena has shown promise in the minor leagues, but it would be a tall order for Pena to step directly into the starting lineup for Correa, a franchise icon and two-time All-Star. The 24-year-old his an impressive .287/.346/.598 over 133 plate appearances at Triple-A.

On the pitching side, the Astros have already shifted to a new generations of arms led by the likes of Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, and Luis Garcia. Former ace and rotation stalwart Justin Verlander is still awaiting a possible qualifying offer, however. Despite missing all of last season because of Tommy John surgery, the 38-year-old would be a high ceiling, short-term use of the Astros’ financial might, were they to go ahead and extend the qualifying offer. The deadline to extend that offer is Sunday, and the Astros are still considering their options, tweets Rome.

Astros Owner Jim Crane Discusses Correa, Verlander, Gurriel, Baker

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While Astros owner Jim Crane is focused on his team’s ALDS matchup with the White Sox, Crane talked about several impending offseason topics with FOX 26’s Mark Berman, The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome (all multiple links) and other reporters today.

With several major names scheduled to hit free agency, Crane said his team plans to “definitely be in the mix” to sign Carlos Correa, and “I think we have a chance” to retain the shortstop’s services.  Of course, “it just depends on where we end up on that and what Carlos wants to do.  Certainly dollars are a factor.”

The Astros made attempts to sign Correa to a contract extension last spring, reportedly making offers in the range of five years/$125MM and six years/$120MM.  Those numbers seemed low even before Correa delivered an All-Star performance in 2021, and the 27-year-old now seems likely to land at least twice as much money on the open market.

Re-signing Correa would require the Astros to make the biggest financial commitment in franchise history, which Crane at least sounded open to, if a little guardedly.  “I never count anything out….We have a history of doing something in the neighborhood of five (years) is the most we’ve ever done since I’ve been here,” Crane said.  “Things can change.  We’re not counting it out.”

Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Lance McCullers Jr. have all signed five-year extensions with Houston during Crane’s stewardship, and it isn’t as if Crane has been unwilling to spend.  Altuve’s five additional years gave the second baseman $151MM in new guaranteed money, Bregman’s extension was worth $100MM, and McCullers landed $85.5MM.  That said, Correa said back in April that the Astros “made it clear to me they don’t believe in long contracts, they don’t believe in big contracts,” which could indicate that his contractual expectations go far beyond any commitment the Astros are willing to make.

Crane didn’t bring up the qualifying offer in regards to Correa, in all likelihood because it seems a foregone conclusion that Houston will issue Correa a QO and he’ll reject the one-year offer, leaving the Astros in line to receive draft pick compensation if Correa did sign elsewhere.  Justin Verlander is a bit more complicated qualifying-offer case given that the veteran ace has missed virtually all of the last two seasons with injury, but Crane said “we’ll probably” issue Verlander the QO “and then see where it goes.”

Even after two lost seasons and now on the verge of his age-39 season, Verlander is still “looking for a contract of some length,” according to Crane.  This would imply that Verlander would reject the one-year qualifying offer (though it would pay in the neighborhood of a $20MM salary for 2022) in search of a longer-term deal, and given Verlander’s track record, it certainly seems possible that at least one or even multiple teams would be willing to sign the future Hall-of-Famer to such a multi-year contract.

If Verlander did reject the QO, the Astros would at least benefit via compensatory draft picks.  However, Verlander has 10 days to decide whether or not to accept a qualifying offer, and if he doesn’t get wind of any teams showing interest in a multi-year deal, Verlander might choose to take the QO and remain in a familiar situation in Houston.  The Astros and Verlander’s camp could then negotiate a longer-term extension after the QO had been accepted, similar to what Jose Abreu and the White Sox did in the 2019-20 offseason.

There appears to be much less controversy surrounding Yuli Gurriel’s 2022 status.  The Astros hold an $8MM club option on Gurriel for next season, which looks to Crane like “a pretty easy decision.  I’m sure we’ll execute on that.”  The 37-year-old Gurriel is coming off a strong season that saw him hit 15 homers and win the AL batting title as part of an overall .319/.383/.462 performance in 605 plate appearances.

Beyond the player roster, manager Dusty Baker isn’t under contract beyond this season, as Crane said “we haven’t really talked about it.  We’re going to wait for things to get over with here” in the Astros’ playoff run.  Baker has led the Astros to the postseason in each of his two years in Houston, and the veteran manager has indicated that he would like to continue with the team.

Though Crane noted that GM James Click has authority over the manager’s job, “I’ll certainly weigh in on it and we’ll make a decision probably together on that one because I did hire [Baker] to begin with.”  Crane did give Baker some measure of a vote of confidence in noting that Baker “has done a great job for us.  I like Dusty a lot.”

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