Mid-term front office grades: Astros, Rangers, and the AL West mess
By Bill Felber
This week marks the halfway point of the 2024 season. That makes this an excellent time to deliver mid-term grades for the work done by each team’s front office since the conclusion of the 2023 postseason.
The second installment of this mid-season series looks at AL West front offices.
The standard of measurement in Wins Above Average (WAA), a variant of Wins Above Replacement (WAR). For this purpose, WAA is preferable because unlike WAR, it is zero-based. That means the sum of all the decisions made by each team’s front office gives at least a good estimate of the number of games those moves have improved – or worsened – the team’s status this season.
Our grading scale is straight-forward. Front offices that have improved their team by…:
+3.0 games or higher = A
+1.0 to +2.9 games = B
-0.9 to +0.9 games = C
-1.0 to -2.5 games = D
-2.6 games or worse = F
A team’s front office impacts that team’s standing in five ways. Those five are:
1. By the impact of players it acquires from other teams via trade, purchase or waiver claim.
2. By the impact of players it surrenders to other teams in those same transactions.
3. By the impact of players it signs at free agency or extends.
4. By the impact of players it loses to free agency or releases.
5. By the impact of players it promotes from its own farm system.
From best to worst, here’s how AL West front offices stack up by those five yardsticks.
Grading the front offices of the AL West so far in 2024
Houston Astros: Dana Brown, general manager. Grade: B.
The Astros have foundered through much of the first half of the season, so Brown’s rating requires some clarification. Most of the roster-improving deeds he has taken on since the end of the 2023 postseason involved jettisoning under-performing players rather than acquiring productive ones, so his grade looks better than it probably ought to be.
The most significant jettison involved the departure of catcher Martin Maldonado via free agency. Maldonado signed with the White Sox, where he has continued to do what he did in Houston: not hit. His loss improves Brown’s overall score by 2.3 WAA, and that’s the difference between a B and a C interim grade.
Otherwise, things have been pretty neutral in Houston. The Astros have made 22 personnel moves impacting the major league roster, 10 of which netted positive results. Another eight were negative, four neutral.
The most impactful has turned out to be a disappointing rookie pitcher. Since being pressed into emergency rotation duty, Spencer Arrighetti is 3-6 with a 6.36 ERA in 13 starts. That works out to a -1.3 WAA.
Aside from Arrighetti and Tayler Scott, a +0.8 free agent signee, none of the arrivals has made much of an impact in either direction. Essentially, the Astros front office stood still. And that means Brown can thank Maldonado’s incompetence for his division-leading grade.
Overall score: +2.0. Grade: B.