Looking at the Shohei Ohtani deal and then looking at the Astros has some fans wondering why owner Jim Crane hasn’t broken out the checkbook to bring in big name free agents. It can be tough to watch the rich get richer while the Astros largely stand pat (no offense to their new backup catcher and relief arm).
But, just spending doesn’t always make a ton of sense. Money needs to be spent wisely, and in the right ways. Crane is a billionaire, but he isn’t Mets owner Steve Cohen. He won’t be able to throw money around regardless of how little return comes back, nor should he. There are, in fact, very good reasons for the Astros to not spend boatloads this offseason.
That isn’t how the Astros do business…and you should be good with that.
Sometimes, sports can feel to fans like the old way people spent money on Wheel of Fortune. They’d win a bunch of money and get to spend in on anything in a particular showcase, from a motor boat to a porcelain lion figurine. But, Crane has spent wisely since he bought the team and set some basic policies in place to protect that fiscal responsibility. The lack of mega deals have kept them flexible and allowed the team to be progressive in developing quality replacement depth. They have also kept open opportunities to spend big when they needed to – Justin Verlander, for example.
As a result, everyone in baseball (just about) is chasing how the Astros do business and trying to emulate them. Certainly, as times change, so will the team’s approach need to be adjusted, but not right now.
Building the farm system is critically important and spending won’t help that.
It is arguable that the second most important responsibility of the organization right now after winning a World Series is developing the talent that will sustain the franchise going forward. They have borrowed some from that future to stay relevant in the majors, but the time is coming to pay the piper. GM Dana Brown was hired in large part to reconstruct what was the best farm system in baseball while attempting to maintain big league excellence. They do not want to hamstring one of those things to feed the other.
They are losing money from TV revenue streams.
No one should be crying over the Astros losing a $70 million-plus revenue stream, but it does matter. Rich people don’t get rich by giving money away and a hit of that magnitude thanks to the death of AT&T SportsNet Southwest will impact the team. Yes, the Astros and Rockets purchased the network and they do have carriage agreements that last another decade, but the lost royalty payments sting. When you look around the league, teams like the Rangers and Guardians are not spending as much as they might this offseason because they might not have TV deals at all next season. Imagine the World Series champs not on local TV.
Whatever we may feel about spending someone else’s money, the financial impact of those lost revenues are significant and will trickle down to every part of the organization.
They are already really good.
Somehow, this always seems to be overlooked in these discussions. This is a team one year removed from a World Series title and just one home win away from another World Series trip last year. They will have almost exactly the same group of players on the team this year as they did last year (many of the same from the year before). They also should benefit from the recovery of players like Lance McCullers, Jr. and Luis Garcia, as well as the experience for guys like Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier. New talent in Yainer Diaz and Mauricio Dubon has emerged and Chas McCormick will get a full season of regular time to improve on his breakout season.
They will have times in the future when spending will be a greater priority than it is right now. Right now, they are good enough that they don’t have to spend outrageous money to be better.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
