Houston Astros Have Been Sold To Jim Crane

But the reason for the Astros being in the news isn’t a good one, at least as far as Astros fans are concerned. One could argue that whenever the Astros have been in the news of late, the reason hasn’t been a good one, at least as far as Astros fans are concerned, but the Astros haven’t lost a bunch of games or traded a player away - they’re in the news because they’re moving to the American League West in time for the 2013 regular season.

It was long presumed, and now it’s basically official. Major League Baseball has wanted to even the leagues at 15 teams apiece. The Astros are being sold from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane. Major League Baseball has gotten the Astros to agree to a move as a condition of the sale. Not that they really had much of a choice. As such, we’re a year away from looking at six divisions with five teams in each.

Today, according to Maury Brown at Biz of Baseball, the sale of the Astros to Houston businessman Jim Crane may be completed:

The Astros have not commented on the sale. The reported sale price is $680 million. Drayton McLane purchased the Astros for $117 million in 1992. Accounting for inflation, in today’s dollars that would be worth approx $180 million. He will also receive $95 million in monies associated to the new regional sports network being started with the Houston Rockets.