The Astros have been in the news a lot lately. They traded Ryan Pressly to the Cubs. They reportedly still have the door open a crack for Alex Bregman and, relatedly, have some willingness to move Jose Altuve from second base to left field. General manager Dana Brown addressed those various topics while speaking to the media today, with Chandler Rome of The Athletic among those to report on his comments.
On Pressly, Brown said that the relationship between himself and the reliever “took a slightly different turn” when the club signed Josh Hader going into the 2024 season. “Any time you take a major-league player out of a role where they feel comfortable, it’s going to fracture your relationship some,” Brown said. “I think we continued to communicate. He was a true professional and I kept it real as a true professional myself. Ultimately, I wouldn’t say (the relationship) was the same as (when) we first met, but I think there was some frustration, which I totally understand from a competitor.”
Pressly had been the club’s closer for several years. He racked up 12 saves in the shortened 2020 season and then finished the next three campaigns with between 26 and 33 saves. But the club was looking to bolster the bullpen going into 2024, mostly due to factors unrelated to Pressly. The Astros had lost Héctor Neris, Phil Maton, and Ryne Stanek to free agency and then Kendall Graveman required shoulder surgery that was likely going to keep him out for the entire year.
They decided that the best way to add to the bullpen was to get Hader, signing him to a five-year, $95MM contract. He took over the closing duties in Houston, bumping Pressly to a setup role. It seems Pressly was privately a bit miffed by the change, though he didn’t make any public complaints. He was credited with 25 holds and four saves last year while posting a 3.49 earned run average.
Rumors of a Pressly trade have been floating around all winter. Part of the logic was that the Astros have some desire to avoid the competitive balance tax in 2025, which also provided some motivation for the Kyle Tucker trade. Pressly’s contract pays him $14MM this year, a salary in range of market rates for a solid closer but perhaps a bit high for a setup guy on a club trying to limbo under the tax line.
The complication, from an outside perspective, was Pressly’s 10-and-5 rights. Since he had at least 10 years of service and at least five with the Astros, Pressly had the right to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Houston Astros – MLB Trade Rumors…