Four Thoughts on the Houston Astros Heading Into 2024 Season
It’s interesting to think of how high the bar has become for the Houston Astros on the local landscape, especially when juxtaposed with the Texans and the Rockets, who empirically aren’t anywhere close to where the Astros are in their sport, and yet fans in Houston feel nothing but sheer bliss for both of those teams, because, hey, at least they’re both relevant again.
The Astros, meanwhile, have been to seven straight League Championship Series, won two World Series in the last seven seasons, been to two more, are third on the board for World Series odds, and yet it feels like there is way more major concern over the Astros than the Rockets or Texans. Such is life when the bar is, at a minimum, being among the final four teams standing.
I feel like we KNOW two things — first, the Houston Astros are a very, very talented baseball team, and second, they will need a handful of guys to have much better seasons in 2024 than they did in 2023 if they’re going to get back to the winner’s circle again in November. As the Yankees come to town on Thursday to open the season, here are my four biggest questions for the Astros this season:
What happens with Alex Bregman’s contract?
Bregman is in the final season of the six-year deal he signed back in 2017. As of this past weekend, he had yet to receive an offer on a new deal from the Astros, but he said he is open to looking at an extension in season. Bregman is looking for a monster pay day, and it is probably not the annual salary that is spooking the Astros, but likely the number of years Bregman seeks, which could be in
the 8 to 10 year range. That math doesn’t work for Jim Crane. Aside from Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman is probably the Astro that it’s most difficult to envision in another uniform. The Astros are used to dealing with big name players in contract years, so dealing with any distraction shouldn’t be an issue.
