As chance would have it, the Houston Astros' first exhibition game was a home game of sorts, with Houston hosting the team that shares its West Palm Beach complex, the Washington Nationals. Because it's still February and a lot of the veterans are relatively early in their preparation for the regular season, no members of the 2017 Astros played.
And yet the Astros were still booed, vociferously, in the first dress rehearsal for what promises to be an extremely challenging year.
Really, there's nothing that the Houston players can do about it anymore -- not even the many current Astros who were with other organizations in 2017, like outfielder Michael Brantley, who was serving out his final season with Cleveland back then. Some of the reaction has crossed the line, as ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote the other day.
New Astros manager Dusty Baker said it right in speaking with reporters, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post among them. "You've just got to put your big-boy pants on and just try to shut it out and just play baseball and realize that this too shall pass," Baker said. "When? I'm not sure."
The response to some of the Astros may never dissipate, leaving them to figure out how to cope with it all. Maybe mental coaches can help. Maybe competitive defiance will kick in, with an "I'll show you" instinct taking over. It's possible that some players will let it get to them; the negative reinforcement from booing fans is part of the reason why Ed Whitson, Kenny Rogers and Sonny Gray departed the Yankees.
For members of the '17 Astros who have moved on to other teams, such as the Twins' Marwin Gonzalez and the Mets' Jake Marisnick, it'll be a little easier because the uniforms they wear won't set off the reflexive response that the Houston gear will generate.
Each of the '17 Astros still with the team has no choice but to endure, and as with all players, they all have something at stake personally this season.
George Springer: The three-time All-Star is headed into free agency in the fall, and among position players not named Mookie Betts, he has a chance to get the biggest deal. Springer, 30, had arguably his best season in 2019, with an OBP of .383, an OPS of .974, 39 homers and 96 runs in 122 games. In a weird sort of way, the upcoming summer represents an opportunity for him: If he thrives in the face of the constant booing that the Astros will hear on the road, it will attest to a mental toughness that you would not see under normal circumstances. Like the dark side of the moon.
It's possible that a very small number of owners may shy away from signing an Astros player, but in this era of analytics, front-office executives mostly care about one thing: production. If Springer thrives this summer, he's going to be compensated handsomely in the fall.
Jose Altuve: The second baseman's legacy is on the line. He's about to start getting really, really big money for the first time in his baseball life, after dramatically outperforming his contract in the first nine years of his career. Altuve will make $29 million annually over the next five seasons.
Altuve turns 30 in May, a month after he starts his 10th year in the big leagues and officially qualifies for Hall of Fame consideration -- and his numbers are extraordinary. Three batting titles. Four years of 200 or more hits and 1,568 hits for his career. A .315 lifetime average.
But through the years, Hall of Fame voters have applied demerits to some candidates for various reasons. Ferguson Jenkins seemingly had to wait longer than he should have for induction because of a 1980 arrest. Roberto Alomar was one of the greatest players of his generation, but wasn't voted in until his second year, probably because of his 1996 spitting incident. Curt Schilling has been penalized by writers for his post-career outspokenness, particularly on social media. And of course, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, all-time great players, have been kept out of the Hall of Fame through repeated votes because of their links to performance-enhancing drugs.
Altuve's Hall of Fame case will be helped, in all likelihood, if he continues to be a hitting machine, hammering away well beyond the buzzer conspiracy theories.
Carlos Correa: This was going to be a big year for Correa regardless of any sign-stealing controversy because at age 25, four-plus years into his career, he needs to demonstrate durability. Correa had a career-high .568 slugging percentage last year, but he missed 87 games; over the past three seasons, he has played 294 games, less than 100 annually. If Correa stays in the lineup and produces, he could hit free agency at age 27 and be among the most coveted targets of the 2021-22 offseason.
(Remember this: Correa is in line to reach the open market in the same offseason that the next collective bargaining agreement will be negotiated, and historically, owners have spent big in the aftermath of freshly signed CBAs. If Correa weathers the 2020 backlash, remains healthy and is productive, he could get an enormous deal.)
Justin Verlander: The right-hander should be a unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame whenever he becomes eligible, but he seemingly has miles to go before that. Coming off a Cy Young-caliber season in 2019, when he went 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA, Verlander is within 75 wins of 300. He's got a shot to reach a number that seemingly had become unreachable because of the industry's management of innings for starting pitchers. Verlander is on the verge of 3,000 regular-season innings, and sometime next season, he'll likely make his 500th career start.
For Verlander, the scrutiny of 2020 will probably feel like business as usual. As a staff ace, he has long drawn the ire of opposing fans on his walks to and from the bullpen before games, coming on and off the field. And the fact is, Verlander wasn't directly involved in the sign-stealing scandal in the way that the Houston hitters were.
Will any voters apply demerits to his Hall of Fame case? This far out, it's impossible to know. Heck, somebody found a reason to not vote for Derek Jeter.
Alex Bregman: The third baseman is seemingly in a similar position as Altuve. He has already signed a long-term contract to stay in Houston, with his salary jumping from $640,500 in 2019 to $13 million in 2020, part of a deal that runs through 2024.
Privately, more than a few players with other teams wonder if, in the aftermath of the scandal, Bregman will tone down his overt on-field persona, which reached an apex when he carried his bat all the way to first base -- and beyond -- in last year's postseason. (Bregman apologized immediately after that game.) He has always played with confidence, and moving forward, some of his opponents wonder how that will be impacted.
Josh Reddick: This is Year 12 of a long and prosperous career in the big leagues for Reddick, and the final season of the four-year, $52 million deal he signed with the Astros after the 2016 season. Reddick played 141 games for Houston last year, and with Springer seemingly destined for more starts in center than the 67 he had in 2020, Reddick is in a battle with youngster Kyle Tucker for playing time. Reddick, 33, could set himself up for another contract if he plays well this year.
Yuli Gurriel: He broke into the big leagues in 2016 at age 32, after defecting from Cuba. He'll be 36 in June, and with three-plus years of service time, he's climbing the arbitration ladder -- he'll make $8.4 million this year, and if he continues to hit and play well defensively, then the Astros will bring him back for 2021. If not, he could wind up being a non-tender candidate, given the enormous glut of first basemen available in free agency every winter.
Elsewhere around the major leagues
• Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke intends to talk with Andrew Benintendi about hitting in the leadoff spot in the wake of Boston trading baseball's best leadoff hitter, Betts. Benintendi runs well and is adept at getting on base, and he has had solid numbers when he has batted in the No. 1 spot, with an .831 OPS in 332 plate appearances.
• Two months ago, executives with other teams assumed that the Yankees would trade J.A. Happ to shave payroll following the signing of Gerrit Cole to his record-setting nine-year, $324 million deal. Instead, Happ will be an important part of the New York rotation at the outset of the 2020 season, following injuries to James Paxton and Luis Severino and the suspension of Domingo German under MLB's domestic violence policy. Happ has looked good in Yankees camp so far; in his first exhibition outing Saturday, his fastball was clocked at 92-93 mph -- and in the eyes of one evaluator who was present, he commanded his stuff well and had late movement.
• The Tampa Bay Rays appear to have more position-player depth than ever, always a challenge for a small-market team. As manager Kevin Cash draws out his lineup daily, he'll have a lot of good options for matchups and defense with a group of outfielders that includes Austin Meadows, Kevin Kiermaier, Hunter Renfroe, Manuel Margot and perhaps Yoshi Tsutsugo, a left-handed hitter who had 139 homers over the past four seasons for Yokohama in the Japan Central League. As Cash identifies a DH, he could go with Tsutsugo or one of his other outfielders -- or maybe a platoon of Ji-Man Choi, who had an .869 OPS against right-handers last season, and Jose Martinez, who had a .997 OPS versus lefties in '19.
• Relievers increasingly have lived a nomadic existence in the majors. As teams use more and more bullpen pieces, the pool of available relievers gets larger and larger, and clubs increasingly use that shifting context of supply and demand as leverage.
So it may be that you'll see more deals like the one signed by Chicago White Sox reliever Aaron Bummer, who agreed to a five-year, $16 million deal the other day -- the best deal of its type since Sean Doolittle signed a five-year, $10.5 million contract in 2014. Bummer is not a closer and therefore doesn't compile saves, the category most aggressively rewarded under an arbitration system that is increasingly antiquated. With the deal negotiated by the White Sox and agent Tom O'Connell, Bummer grabs a chunk of guaranteed money early in his career (he's got a year and 150 days of service in the big leagues). From the team's perspective, reliever performance can be volatile, with the inherent injury concern, but this deal locks in a valuable reliever at a set rate through his arbitration years, and perhaps three years beyond. If the White Sox exercise the two club options at the end of the contract, it will expire when Bummer is 33. The team gets cost certainty and the player gets a life-changing amount of money guaranteed, rather than a near-minimum salary.
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• J.D. Martinez's ankle injury late in 2018 affected his ability to work out in the 2018-2019 offseason, and his production drifted downward, from a 1.031 OPS in '18 to .939 last season. But this spring, he appears to be in phenomenal condition and will once again anchor a lineup that should be strong even without Betts. "He's on a mission," a Red Sox teammate said.
• Felix Hernandez lost weight and reported to Atlanta Braves camp in good shape, and in his first spring outing, he threw two scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles. Hernandez, who turns 34 in April, is working to jump-start his career beyond his days with the Seattle Mariners, and his performance at the end of camp will be pivotal in determining whether he wins a job in the Atlanta rotation. Over the past two seasons, Hernandez had a 5.82 ERA in 44 appearances with Seattle.
• Tyler O'Neill is 24, has fewer than 300 plate appearances in the big leagues, and is competing among the St. Louis outfielders for playing time -- and wow, does he have some bat speed.