Astros Offseason Plan A
One possible deal to get the ball rolling
In my last HOF index piece I looked at some possible deals that the Astros could make this offseason. In particular I looked at Alex Bregman and whether the team should re-sign him. In that vain, I am going to lay some possible alternatives that they could take to build a team that can compete for a division title under their current constraints.
I am working under two assumptions in this piece. First, I am working under the assumption that Alex Bregman signs elsewhere. Quite simply, this negotiation (if we can call it that) has gone the aame way as the previous ones with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Correa, and George Springer. That leads me to believe he is likely signing elsewhere unless something unforeseen develops.
There are two governing rules to these scenarios. The first is that Jim Crane does not want to elevate the payroll beyond what is already there. We have no way of knowing what his spending limit it, but there are serious ramifications if he goes beyond the tax threshold. If he blows by the second tax threshold those ramifications become more severe. So, we will assume that spending levels will remain constant. Secondly, I put forth these scenarios as exactly that. I am not advocating for any individual scenario. I will come up with a new one each week until the offseason gets underway in earnest.
