I see Angels’ LHP Andrew Heaney and Rockies’ RHP Jon Gray as sleeper targets for Houston. Both have extremely high upside, come with additional years of control, and could be had without giving up Whitley or Tucker. Maybe Houston takes on one of Colorado’s overpaid relievers (preferably Jake McGee rather than Wade Davis or Brian Shaw) along with Gray to lessen the prospect cost.
As long as Rondón goes too! Astros (and Nolan) were really high on Gray when he came out of OU in 2013 draft (Appel/Bryant/Gray).
I was thinking this when Heaney was pitching the other night. Another lefty too. If given a choice of controllable guys out there and their contracts give me Gray. Really talented with Ace upside.
Teams Astros fans should be rooting against for the next 7 days so they can add to the available starting pitching market: Diamondbacks (Greinke, Ray) Rangers (Lynn, Minor) Pirates (Archer, Lyles) Rockies (Marquez, Gray) Mets (Syndergaard, Wheeler)
Unless Rangers GM has changed, I'll root against Arlington as it is unlikely he would deal anyone to Houston except at a premium. The sky is blue...that sounds like another reason to root against Arlington.
Even if some of those teams would be reluctant to trade with Houston, they dilute the market and drive prices down just by being sellers to the other contenders.
What about Bauer? Wouldn't mind him but with the Indians gaining ground on the Twins for the division I think its unlikely they would look to move him.
I’m bored. Here’s one hypothetical for each team with <10% chance to make the playoffs as we get closer to d day:
I know he’s had a rough year, but I’m not giving up Whitley for the likes of Stroman, Boyd or Marco Gonzales. None of them are real difference makers. However, if Syndergaard is on the table, I’d be willing to include Whitley for him because I believe Strom can unlock his potential like he did with Gerrit Cole.
In my hypotheticals where I included Whitley, the Astros got an additional valuable major league player with multiple years of control on top of a starting pitcher with multiple years of control. I wouldn’t trade Whitley straight up for Stroman, Boyd, or Gonzales either. But adding Jansen (5 years of a starting catcher) to Stroman, Norris (a MoR with 2 more years) to Boyd, and Narvaez (starting catcher with 3 years) to Gonzales makes those deals a lot more appealing. I would not include Whitley for Thor unless NY tossed in another player; Matz, Diaz, or maybe Lugo.
I don't follow the minors that closely. Has Whitley been pitching injured in 2019? He has been terrible this calendar year, and I don't think other teams currently view him as an elite prospect. I don't think Whitley will be traded, but the reason is because he has low value right now and the smart thing to do is to give him time to bounce back and gain value, either to be realized with the Astros or as trade bait down the road.
Whitley’s value is a pretty big unknown right now, as is the reason for his struggles and lack of innings this season. Obviously if other teams don’t value him as one of the Top 20 prospects in baseball then it doesn’t make sense for Houston to make him available (unless of course they don’t think he’s that valuable either). Other teams have at least as much information as we do; he entered the season as the consensus top pitching prospect in the game, but has had an awful season, getting shelled across 25 sparsely distributed innings in AAA and rookie ball. But he’s only 21, and if his issues were due to a minor injury then his stock shouldn’t have fallen that much. But if he struggled due to a major injury or due to a flaw in his game getting exposed, then his stock would tumble quite a bit. Had he been brought back to AA or AAA 2 weeks ago to get in 4-5 starts prior to the deadline, I would have considered it more likely he would be traded. As it stands, I think it extremely unlikely he gets traded, and if he does the medicals will play heavily in whether it goes through.
Even with those players included, I still wouldn’t pull the trigger on those trades. Forrest Whitley has top of the rotation upside and is really young. He also was the talk of the minors before the season. Those trades are all selling low, imho. I would rather see if his value recovers next season than make any of those deals.
I would bet if you went to the other teams’ sites and proposed those trades, they would say no way in hell, Whitley is injured/sucks and you can’t even have Boyd/Gonzales/etc by himself. Like I said, Whitley’s value is a big unknown right now. But I personally would be ok trading him if it netted Houston a ToR SP with multiple years of control plus another complementary established big leaguer with multiple years.
I agree with you, and that’s why I said I would only include him in a deal for Syndergaard. With Strom’s tutelage, Syndergaard has Gerrit Cole’s upside. However, none of the deals you proposed had the Astros getting a top of the rotation starter in return. Marcus Stroman, Matthew Boyd and Marco Gonzales are all middle of the rotation pitchers.
