Regardless of whatever public face they try to put on it I'm sure the underlying reason for holding Springer back is the arbitration date issue.  And if fans think about it it's not a bad thing for the ball club.  It might deprive the fans of 2 months of the Springer Spectacular next year when the team might have a few minor improvements, but it should allow the team to maintain control of the player an extra year on the other end of his arbitration years when supposedly the team will be one of the best in the game (we can only hope) and the player is at his peak.

I think the Nationals intended to use the same tack last year in holding out Bryce Harper, but because of the team's relatively slow start and its other heavy investments they went ahead and brought him up earlier than they had hoped.  The Astros won't have those other heavy investments to influence expectations so if you know the magic date for arbitration negotiations then you probably know Springer's  MLB debut date.



...  mmm, chimichanga ...