SEATTLE – The Astros of Houston exchanged the Rafael Montero lift to the Braves d’Atlanta on Tuesday evening, discharging an inflated contract from a dangerously wage bill near the luxury tax threshold while releasing the calamitary camée of the owner Jim Crane as a chief of the baseball operations.
Atlanta will send a player appointed to the Astros, who sent money to the brave to cover the majority of the salary of $ 11.5 million in Montero. Montero plays in the last season of a $ 34.5 million contract over three years that Crane gave him during the management of the baseball operations service during the 2022 off -season.
Montero displayed an MPM of 4.92 out of 109 2/3 rounds after signing the agreement. The Astros appointed it for assignment last August, but Montero accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Sugar Land instead of electing the free agency.
Several sources of the league said that the Astros had tried to unload Montero this winter, but found no takers for a 34 -year -old lift with a major league season outside competition. The fact that Montero added a separator this spring and launched well in limited action at the start of the season may have made it more pleasant to taste. The same goes for the assault of pitching injuries that accompany the start of each season.
Atlanta needed experienced arms in her enclosure of lifts after having already thrown several veterans at low cost this spring and in the first two weeks of the season due to disappointing performances.
In Montero, they obtained an 11 -year -old veteran right -hander whose last good season was in 2022, when he had a 2.37 MPM in a career summit of 71 appearances. In 112 appearances since, Montero has 107 stick withdrawals and 50 alarming steps and 19 circuits in 112 games.
Obtaining part of Montero’s money on books is crucial for an astros club which, according to several team sources, does not want to exceed the luxury tax threshold for a second consecutive season. Asked on the day of the opening if he gave a mandate to switch to the tax, Crane replied: “We are not really focused on this. We are really focused on victory and the best combination of players we can put on the field. ”
Before Tuesday’s Montero trade, approximate cot baseball contracts, the Astros were $ 1,917,285 in the first tax threshold. Any additional part would be welcomed, especially if Houston is able to add before the deadline of July.
Montero has turned into a full member of the winter enclosure of the World Series in Houston in 2022. He presented four of the six world astros games against the Philadelphia phillies, recording a taking in their 3-2 3-2 victory in match 5 in the Citizens Bank Park.
Crane awarded this sustained success season with a high agreement that raised the eyebrows as soon as she entered official. The owner only designed it a few days after the “separation ways” with the director general James Click. Later this winter, Crane and the main advisor Jeff Bagwell brought in the first goal player José Abreu on a contract of $ 58.5 million over three years which is now classified among the worst transactions in the history of the franchise.
The Astros released Redu last May and still pay him $ 19.5 million this season.
(Photo: Erik Williams / Imagn Images)
