3 rumors that would be disasters for the Astros with Ohtani off the market

Jordan Montgomery returning to the Rangers

When the Rangers acquired Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline last season, it completely changed the dynamic of the NL West race. Texas was struggling early in the second half especially after key injuries in their rotation and Montgomery's arrival allowed Texas to stabilize enough to snag a playoff spot and making a run all the way to a World Series title.

While it was fortunate that Montgomery was just a rental and hit free agency once the season ended, Texas loved having him and the Rangers have been pegged as favorites to re-sign him for most of this offseason. In a vacuum, a team that just won a World Series is going to have a new infusion of cash at their disposal and bringing back one of the guys that was instrumental in winning the title just made too much sense especially given how aggressive the Rangers had been the last few offseasons.

There is good news here, however, Every team has a limit to how much payroll they can carry and with all the money they have committed to other guys like Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom, and Max Scherzer, retaining Montgomery on another heavy nine figure salary could be tough. Complicating matters for the Rangers is that they are one of the teams that is set to lose a chunk of TV revenue due to Bally Sports' financial troubles as their Rangers coverage appears set to be dropped altogether.

Is that wishful thinking? Perhaps. It still seems hard to believe that the Rangers are just going to stand pat with everything they have invested in the roster and accomplished last year. Assuming the revenue hit from all the TV nonsense isn't too catastrophic, they will probably still try to bring Montgomery back and that would make it that much harder for Houston to win the AL West next season if that comes to pass.