HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- One of the aspects of being a general manager James Click is learning is how nothing gets to just sit on the backburner.
He’s juggling every dish in the kitchen and the Astros have a lot of priorities to address both on and off the field, Click said Monday.
But the major question for the Astros, just days removed from being eliminated from the American League Championship Series in Game 7, is how aggressively they will pursue new contracts for their outfielders.
George Springer, Michael Brantley and Josh Reddick are all free agents.
Springer is one of the best to ever wear an Astros uniform. Brantley’s two seasons with the Astros have shown him to be a valuable piece on a World Series contender. And Reddick is one of the core players left from the 2017 World Series team.
Springer and Brantley are going to command the most on the free agent market. They will be difficult to retain.
Click acknowledged the economic challenges facing Major League Baseball in light of the pandemic, and expressed the need for flexibility.
Click wants to keep the Astros’ core together for as long as he can, but also spoke against short-sighted moves that could cripple future team building
“That’s the balance of trying to keep one eye on the present and one eye on the future,” Click said. “It’s not lost on me, or any of us, how talented this group is. You don’t get to the ALCS four years in a row, you don’t get to Game 7 of the ALCS unless you have a very talented core. And obviously we want to try to keep this window open for as long as we possibly can.
“But the last thing that we can do is make a series of short-sighted moves that are going to put us in a bad position for the long term. So that’s the balance of the present and the future.”
Click praised Springer as one of the best Astros ever, a tremendous leader and human being. The Astros’ front office wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t pursue players like Springer.
They also have to contend with the industry’s uncertainty, Click said, adding MLB sustained $2.7 to $3 billion worth of losses.
“It may take us years to try to recover from this,” Click said. “So, our spending is going to be dependent on what we think 2021 is going to look like operationally and what the market bears out as a result of that.
“But George Springer, Michael Brantley, it’s obvious to everybody how good they are at the game of baseball right now, how much they bring to this team on and off the field. The question is always how we balance everything and make sure that we put this team in a position to succeed, not only in the short term but the long term.”
If you are talking long term, the Astros have more foundational priorities just around the corner, when the much younger shortstop Carlos Correa and pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. could become free agents.
The Astros could seek out shorter contracts with all of the uncertainty Click mentioned.
Is that something either Brantley, 33, or Springer, 31, would be up for? Or is Click creative enough to find ways to either keep, or sign impact players despite the financial constraints?
“Shorter term deals do provide more flexibility than longer term deals,” Click said. “We probably would prioritize shorter term deals. That said, there is always flexibility and appetite on my end to be creative about ways to line things up with potential free agents, or other trades where we don’t have to do things the same way that they’ve always been done in terms of contracts. If we want to find new ways to be creative … we’ll be open on any of those ideas.”