Astros’ Hader: ‘Goal is to win the World Series’
HOUSTON — Josh Hader and the Houston Astros weren’t ready to define what his bullpen role will be on the day they announced his five-year contract that a source told ESPN’s Jeff Passan is worth $95 million.
It appears likely he will take over as closer and push Ryan Pressly back to a setup job in a bullpen that also includes Rafael Montero and Bryan Abreu.
But Hader and general manager Dana Brown refused to say if that was the plan.
“We signed here to win baseball games, to win a championship,” Hader said Monday when asked if he expected to be the team’s closer. “I think like Dana said, Ryan’s in the same boat and we’re all in the same boat to do whatever we can and win ballgames and take it to the final step.”
Regardless of what inning Hader is used in, the Astros are excited to have the combination of him, Pressly and Abreu to pitch the late innings.
“This is a pretty special arm and he’s a part of a pretty special trio in the back,” Brown said.
Hader will get a $19 million salary in each of the next five seasons, none of it deferred. He gets a full no-trade provision and would receive a $1 million bonus for winning the Mariano Rivera/Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Award.
Hader’s deal can be considered the most lucrative for a relief pitcher, even while falling short of the total dollars in Edwin Díaz’s $102 million, five-year contract with the New York Mets that began last year. Díaz’s deal includes $26.5 million in deferred payments he won’t completely receive until 2042 and was valued at $93.2 million for baseball’s luxury tax and $88.8 million by the players’ association.
A 29-year-old with long, flowing hair, Hader returns to the Astros organization after spending two years in their minor league system from mid-2013 through mid-2015.
Hader is excited to finally play for the Astros after being traded before reaching the big leagues. He added that he has kept ties to Texas after meeting his wife, Maria Hader, in Corpus Christi, Texas, when he played for Houston’s Double-A affiliate there.
“I promise to give you all I have on the field and in the community,” he said. “We’re excited to be here to win now and for many years to come.”
New manager Joe Espada, hired after Dusty Baker retired at the end of last season, was thrilled to add Hader to the Astros.
“Adding someone like Josh to our team, an already elite team, puts us a step closer to achieving our goals, which is winning, which is getting back to the World Series,” Espada said. “Today’s a big day for Houston.”
Héctor Neris became a free agent and remains unsigned. Houston reached the agreement three days after announcing reliever Kendall Graveman will miss the season after right shoulder surgery. Brown said the deal with Hader came together in a 72-hour period last week.
Hader became a free agent for the first time last fall after turning down a $20,325,000 qualifying offer from San Diego, which acquired him in a deadline trade from Milwaukee in 2022. Hader made $14.1 million last year.
He’s looking forward to playing with new teammates who have World Series rings after Houston won titles in both 2017 and 2022.
“The goal is to win … the World Series,” Hader said. “And when the team has already done that multiple times and they know how to get there and they know how to take it all the way through the playoffs, you can learn something like that in your career. And I think that was the one thing that I was missing in my career that I could benefit from.”
He was 2-3 with a 1.28 ERA and 33 saves in 38 chances for San Diego in 61 appearances last season, striking out 85 and walking 30 in 56⅓ innings. He disappointed in his Padres debut season with a 7.31 ERA and seven saves over 19 games down the stretch.
Hader has been picked to the past five National League All-Star teams, starting in 2018, his first full season in the big leagues. During the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when there wasn’t an All-Star Game, Hader had 13 saves to lead the NL for the only time.
He is 20-21 with a 2.50 ERA with 165 saves in 190 chances over 349 appearances with the Brewers and Padres.
A Maryland native, Hader was a 19th-round draft pick out of high school by Baltimore in the 2012 amateur draft. Hader got traded a year later to Houston, which in 2015 sent him to Milwaukee as part of a six-player deal. He made his big league debut in June 2017, and had a 2.08 ERA in 35 appearances the rest of that season.
Because Hader turned down a qualifying offer, San Diego will receive an extra pick in next July’s amateur draft. Houston will forfeit a draft selection.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
-
Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia coach Kirby Smart wouldn’t say if being ranked 12th by the College Football Playoff selection committee motivated the Bulldogs to prove a point in Saturday night’s game against No. 7 Tennessee.
Coming off last week’s ugly 28-10 loss at Ole Miss, their second defeat of the season, the Bulldogs would be the first team left out of the playoff if the 12-team bracket was based on the current rankings. No. 13 Boise State would have received the automatic bid as the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion and have jumped them.
That’s probably not the case anymore, after Georgia manhandled Tennessee 31-17 at Sanford Stadium.
“I don’t know what they’re looking for. I really don’t,” Smart said of the CFP selection committee. “I wish they could really define the criteria. I wish they could do the eyeball test where they come down here and look at the people we’re playing against and look at them. You can’t see that stuff on TV, and so I don’t know what they look for. But that’s for somebody else to decide. I’m worried about our team.”
For the first time in a while, Georgia looked pretty good on both sides of the ball against Tennessee. The Bulldogs fell behind 10-0 in the first quarter but came back to tie the score at 17 at the half. Tennessee had only eight first downs and didn’t score in the final 30 minutes. It was the ninth time a Josh Heupel-coached team has scored fewer than 20 points; four of them came against Georgia.
The Bulldogs won their 29th consecutive game at home and defeated the Volunteers for the eighth straight time, all by double digits.
“Our kids showed resilience,” Smart said. “I’m proud of them. Look, it was a week ago, a couple of hours, that we were dead and gone. People had written us off. It’s hard to play in this league, week in and week out, on the road.”
After the Ole Miss loss, Georgia fell from third to 12th in the CFP rankings. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, the chairman of the CFP selection committee, said the Bulldogs’ inconsistent offense and turnovers were reasons why.
“They’re not in that environment,” Smart said. “They’re not at Ole Miss in that environment, playing against that defense, which is top five in the country with one of the best pass rushers in the country, and they’re fired up. They got a two-score lead, and they’re coming every play. They don’t know. They don’t understand that.”
Georgia has played the most difficult schedule in the FBS, according to ESPN’s College Football Power Index, and has the third-best strength of record, which reflects whether an average Top 25 team would have a team’s record or better against its schedule.
The Bulldogs also lost 41-34 at Alabama on Sept. 28 after falling behind 28-0 in the first half. They defeated Clemson 34-3 in their opener and won 30-15 at Texas on Oct. 19.
Adding a dominant victory over Tennessee should help Georgia’s CFP chances. It closes the regular season with two non-SEC games at home, against UMass on Saturday and rival Georgia Tech on Nov. 29.
“It’s just the tale of each week, and we’re trying to be the cumulative, whole, really good quality team and not be on this emotional roller coaster that’s controlled by people in a room somewhere that may not understand football like we do as coaches,” Smart said. “We as coaches, look at people and say, ‘What can we do better? How do we get better?’ I respect their decision. I respect their opinion. But I mean, it’s different in our league.”
One of the big reasons for Georgia’s success against Tennessee was quarterback Carson Beck, who completed 25 of 40 passes for 347 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He had thrown 12 interceptions in the previous six games.
Beck also scored on a 10-yard run that gave Georgia a 24-17 lead with 5:32 left in the third quarter.
“I didn’t really feel any pressure, to be honest,” Beck said. “I stood up in front of the team on Monday and talked to them about how I felt about how our season has gone. I told them that whatever has happened has happened and that all we can control is what we can control moving forward.”
Georgia’s offensive line didn’t allow a sack, while the Bulldogs sacked Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava five times. Georgia had 453 yards and went 5-for-5 in the red zone.
“I think everybody understood the situation that we were in,” Beck said. “When our backs are against the wall, the only way out is through what is in front of you.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway