It happened with Kyle Tucker. It happened with Alex Bregman. It happened with Gerrit Cole. It will happen to Jeremy Pena.
Since Jim Crane bought the Astros organization, he has been one of the most long-term cost-effective owners in the MLB, who has still remained competitive. Usually, teams that follow a cost-effective approach in a league with no salary cap don’t end up successful for the long haul.
Cost-effective team examples include the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Athletics. In recent memory, these teams have become successful and even some of the best teams in the league.
The Art of Moneyball
Coined the term, “Moneyball,” from the infamous 2001 Oakland A’s and a popular movie released in 2011, the A’s and Rays have used this type of practice to win ballgames in recent memory. “Moneyball” is an economic tactic that relies solely on analytics and sabermetric stats to find undervalued ballplayers and win ballgames. Flashy traditional stats from a player do not matter in this case.
This focuses on who hits better in certain counts and who gets on base more. Overall, Moneyball has been a successful tactic to use for teams, with one glaring downside: Signing players to long-term deals, thereby increasing payroll significantly.
If there are players on a team who become too elite, these “Moneyball” teams either let them walk or trade the star to another team for younger assets in the hopes to avoid paying them. The better a player gets, the more attractive they become to opposing teams who are willing to pay them long term deals
How The Astros Used Moneyball
For the Houston Astros, the organization has adopted a more “hybrid” version of Moneyball, called “Astroball,” according to author Ben Reiter. This consists of a mix between sabermetrics and offering short -term, large contracts to homegrown All-Stars, along with signing free agents likely less than six years.
This tactic is done so that in the event the signed player struggles or gets injured throughout the deal, it’s not entirely a wasted investment. The downside is letting fan-favorite players go in free agency or via trade.
Examples of fan favorites departing the team for that reason include Tucker, Bregman, Cole, George Springer, and likely Framber Valdez this offseason. Carlos Correa was in this category, but he came back to the Astros in a lopsided trade a few years later. Crane made the right move, not signing the 31-year-old back in the 2021 offseason to a long-term deal.
