Let's say Astros acquire a SP, a LF, and a 1B. Who gets traded away to make room? Fiers for a bag of chips? Aoki thrown in a trade as salary relief? Gurriel should have value as a 2B. Thinking he may be able to get a lefty in pen.
Position players, that's pretty easy. Aoki traded or DFA'ed and Yuli traded, as you identified. I suppose an outside chance of Beltran being moved, but I can't see that happening. For the SP, it could be Fiers, it could be Musgrove or Feliz if they're in one of the trades (if they're getting 3 different impact players, I have to think at least one of them gets moved in one of the deals), could be Sipp if the injuries to McHugh and Morton last longer and they want the security of Fiers.
I doubt Musgrove or Feliz are traded. Musgrove is valuable as someone for 5th starter plus he can be sent down if all starters are healthy. Feliz can be used in playoffs. Can Fiers get anything? He wasn't that bad last year. He might be a low risk, low reward option for a rebuilding team to try to flip next year when a team gets injuries.
Sure. But young, controllable talent that's already shown they can hold their own to a degree in the majors could easily be a key piece in a deal. In your scenario where we acquire a SP (I assume you meant someone to slot higher than Morton), 1B (a clear improvement over Reed and Gurriel), and LF (either a full-time starter or a platoon with Jake)...we have to give up assets. Can't just say "sorry, no dice, but rip the farm system to shreds" if Musgrove or esp. Feliz could save depth or is what's required to get a deal done.
Astros farm is plenty strong to get a second tier LF and a 1B without blinking (i.e. no Tucker, Perez, Martes, Paulino, Whitley, Musgrove). Think trades like for Kazmir or when Astros sent out Bud Norris. SP is only thing that should actually hurt the farm system unless Astros get someone good with some years at 1B, LF. Teams Astros will be trading with will likely want more club control than MLB players. Astros more likely willing to trade more prospect value than MLB value. Astros don't want to take 2 steps forward and 1 backwards when 1 step forward is cheaper.
Right now there is not much if any room to make changes on the position player side. Aoki is the only player who it would make sense to replace, but with Marisnick playing so well even that doesn't make sense. Gurriel is untradeable unless Houston eats $25M+ which doesn't make any sense. The only place it really makes sense to add is in the rotation and possibly a lefty reliever.
I can see Gurriel being a tough trade (though I expect he's worth more than 14 million as a 2nd baseman for 3.5 years). I'd put him as a possible trade even if he may need to go with someone else. However, Astros are not going into playoffs with Aoki unless there is an injury or two. If you believe in Marisnick's resurgence, you must be aware that it is only against RHPs. This gives the Astros three OFs that aren't hitting LHPs this year and don't really have great track records in the past against LHPs (though Aoki and Marisnick have hit them better in the past[i.e. not been as horrible as this year]). Marisnick is staying for his defense and base running.
Are loogys really worth the money? I always thought it was just to give the larussa's and bo porters of the world theirs witch fix. Maybe one day saber metrics will be advance enough to determine no loogy is worth 3+ million dollars. Mlb will eventually expand the roster, have a loogy from there. Maybe I just wanted to use the term loogy.
Guys that can get lefties out are still valuable. Astros have 4 of the top 20 relievers at getting lefties out. Oddly, none of them are lefties.
The thing about adding a lefty is it means displacing a current member of the bullpen, and there aren't any obvious choices (once everyone is healthy); Sipp and Gregerson have underperformed but are too expensive to trade or release, and every other arm has been excellent (none have an xFIP over 3.66). Adding a reliever would mean sending Feliz down or eating $4M+. Doesn't seem worth it to add a loogy given how volatile relievers are. If they're going to add a reliever it should be another elite arm like Kelvin Herrera or David Robertson.
Somehow I want this team at the deadline Keuchel McCullers SP: A. Cobb or S. Gray McHugh Morton Giles Hoyt Harris Feliz Devo Peacock LHRP: B. Hand or J. Wilson LHRP: Sipp or Tolliver No reason to mess with the current group of position players the chemistry and production are very real. Fisher, Teo, Reed, Musgrove, Centeno should get good looks in September.
Both probably can still be traded. Maybe even can get other team to thrown in a bucket of balls for minor league batting practice.
If you can get a Brad Hand type of lefty (more than a loogy), you do it and dump Sipp. Hopefully there's a trade partner out there for Sipp, esp. if we pick up the rest of this season or part of next even. With the payroll low and team performance high, you gotta think a $4-8M salary hit to improve the team is doable Gregerson has not been all that bad so far. I don't know where this rep of him being awful is coming from.. constant over-inflated expectations it seems. He's given up runs in 5 of 25 appearances. Perhaps he's given up inherited runs, but he's not in the top 20 of that %age, so I can't find the stat easily. Hasn't been a stud, but is far, far, far from being cuttable--especially with his track record.
I know he is hurt, but if Bumgarner somehow becomes available in the trade deadline i would give up anybody in the farm system including Kyle Tucker.
Peter Gammons tweeted Houston is scouting Quintana and Gray this week. I feel pretty confident they will end up with one of Quintana, Gray, Cole, or Cueto, in that order of likelihood. Depending on how teams perform, the next 4 weeks could see the Rays (Cobb, Odorizzi), Blue Jays (Stroman, Happ), Tigers (Verlander), and Mets (Harvey) as teams added to the list of deadline sellers that may have pitchers who interest the Astros.
Quintana doesn't excite me except for being able to eat innings. He's much more valuable now than he will be at deadline for the Astros as he could help out pen now. Not sure what I would give up for him now. Definitely not Tucker. If Astros acquire Quintana, they may still go for another SP depending on who they have to give up and health(e.g. they trade Musgrove, Morton injury is on long end of lat problem instead of early detection).