Every few centuries, a player emerges who cannot be evaluated solely by numbers. Right fielder George Springer has been that player for the Houston Astros since 2014. George Chelston Springer III is an American professional baseball outfielder who played for the Houston Astros from 2014 to 2020.
He is now a Major League Baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays (MLB). Springer was chosen by the Astros in the initial round of the 2011 MLB draught. In 2014, he created his MLB debut for the Astros. Springer has mostly played the right field but has also spent significant time in the center field.
Here’s the part that is difficult for Astros fans to gulp down: Their team will be less exciting without Springer, the locally grown former first-round draught pick whose 2014 debut signaled the beginning of better times. Their strike zone will be quieter without him, and their locker room will be missing the teammate who chose the warmups music and narrated the post-match ceremonies.
Springer has been so important to the Astros that when he was injured, then-manager A.J. Hinch asked that he stay in the dugout throughout tournaments because his voice, humor, and energy cheered everybody up. Another of those qualities that we who are outside the locker room may never fully comprehend is presence. Springer had it all, with his fast play, strength, grin, and connection to the Houston community through charity work.
Why Did Springer Leave The Astros?
According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, George Springer has accepted a six-year, $150 million agreement with the Toronto Blue Jays. As per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Springer is on his way to the Blue Jays’ spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla.,
for wellness to close a deal. Springer agreed to a one-year, $21 million contract with the Astros before the 2020 season was brought to an end, and salaries were deducted. Springer turned down the Astros’ one-year, $18.9 million qualifying offer in November, which was a requirement because the Astros had to offer it in order to receive proposal compensation if he signed elsewhere.
Nonetheless, most baseball fans recognize that rosters must transform. Springer was given the kind of big payday he’d worked for his lifetime in Toronto. After signing José Altuve and Alex Bregman, the Astros knew they couldn’t keep them all, and they did re-sign outfielder Michael Brantley. Springer’s last four seasons, arguably the best in Astros’ historical record, can be summarized in a single image: running full speed toward a ball in the outfield, laying out just to shovel it up from the air, then trying to jump up and moving towards to pit with an ear-to-ear beaming smile as teammates gave him high fives.
Springer was an unusual leadoff hitter in that his match turned around explosiveness, at times, a slew of strikeouts. Yet he was flawless in aspects of both style and substance. His 39 leadoff homers rank eighth in major league history, and he provided an immediate boost to his team 39 times.
He was instrumental in turning around the 2016 Astros, who went from 17-28 to 67-50, with Springer just at the top of the list. The Astros didn’t make the playoffs that year, but they rebounded with three consecutive 100-win seasons and the second-most regular-season victories in MLB between 2017 and 2020.
Springer, 31, will be remembered as being one of the faces of the Astros’ first championship. He won the World Series MVP award in 2017, making a record with five home runs in the seven-game series. He hit a grand slam in all of the final four matches against the Dodgers, breaking the World Series record for the number of games with a home run. Springer, a first-round pick of the Astros in 2011, is fifth on the franchise’s all-time home run list with 174 in seven seasons. His profession slugging percentage of.491 ranks sixth in Astros history.
