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They also didn’t make a good trade. This is a trade you make when you’re not actually serious about winning championships, when you’ve decided to be ordinary. You win titles with players like Tucker, superstars who can be the best player on a great team. This trade, instead, is designed to win a WAR/$ battle, and they don’t hang flags for that. The Astros may have a more efficient roster today, and they’re still a contender to win the AL West. They traded their best player, though, and they’ll feel that every day. Maybe you look at the team’s TV situation -- the Astros have lost as much as any team in recent years -- and justify it, but the way you make up a loss of TV money isn’t to make the team worse, it’s to make the team better so you can generate more revenue at the ballpark. This trade makes the Astros worse, at least in 2025.
To me, this trade signals the end of the Astros as a championship franchise, a moment that’s been coming since Jim Crane ran off James Click after the 2022 World Series. The Astros are just Crane’s plaything now, and he’ll soon learn there are worse things that not being given enough credit for winning the World Series.
To me, this trade signals the end of the Astros as a championship franchise, a moment that’s been coming since Jim Crane ran off James Click after the 2022 World Series. The Astros are just Crane’s plaything now, and he’ll soon learn there are worse things that not being given enough credit for winning the World Series.
