While they may want to kick the tires on Reed at some point this season, he's likely behind White, Moran, and Davis. If Reed does well in AAA, I expect he'll be traded at the deadline.
It’s crazy to me that none of Reed, Moran, White, Davis, or Kemp have been traded by now. I assume the rumors of Moran for Britton were true, so maybe that’s why. But it seems like it’d be pretty easy for Houston to find a match to flip one or 2 of those guys for bullpen upgrades.
The only way it makes sense to trade or non-tender Gattis is if there is a much bigger move planned (acquiring an elite bat like Stanton, Abreu, etc.). Gattis in the role they have him pencilled in for provides very valuable insurance against Stassi, Fisher and any other bench bat not hitting, since he can catch or play LF and could probably play 1B as well. That along with his ability to be a decent everyday DH makes him well worth $6M unless they need that money to make a bigger play elsewhere.
Brad Boxberger was traded to Arizona for their 14th ranked prospect, the equivalent to Alcala or Javier in Houston’s system. I would have loved to have seen the Astros make that deal.
I think many would say that none of those guys are ready to displace anyone on our starting roster, or maybe even the lower end of our 25 man roster. If other teams are taking that opinion as well, then it shouldn't be a shock that most of the return offered are not guys that break into our 25 man roster either. Too many prospects on the edge of ML viability fail. Now, if you put 3 or 4 of those guys in one package, then the recipient can probably bet one of them will pan out.
I think Astros are betting they will be the team for which one of those guys pans out. Individually, I doubt they could get a reliever that could be anything more than a loogy for the playoffs except maybe Moran.
Would love for this to happen. Just what the pen missed last season and can go multiple innings if needed.
Stanton to SF would be about the best case scenario. Keeps him away from the true contenders (LAD, NYY, Boston), hurts LA since they’d have to play against him.
Hopefully they can land two relievers. I still think they need another starter as well but I don't see it happening. One more bat would be nice. The sooner Stanton is traded, I think it will open up the flood gates with trades and signings.
I hope Crane and company will do all they can do to try and maximize all they can within the next three years. There's a reason why it's so hard to repeat back-to-back World Series champions. I heard today on MLB Network, owners don't really see the benefits from the revenue from winning a World Series until three years later. I don't know how true that is because I would think they would see it instantly but I don't know. We don't have a lot of great prospects in respects to pitching in the farm system. Sooner or later they will either have to make another Justin V type trade or sign someone outright. Not sure how much they can afford with the core needing to be paid.
Disagree about pitching prospects. Forrest Whitley is one of the 10 best pitching prospects in the entire league. Martes is also an elite prospect. Paulino, Bukauskas, and Cionel Perez are all fringe Top 100 prospects with elite ceilings. Beyond those 5, there are dozens of prospects who have a realistic shot of contributing in the majors. Their farm depth on the pitching side is actually pretty unbelievable. There should be a steady stream of pitchers arriving in the majors to replace guys as they age or reach free agency. That said, yes it is likely that eventually they will have to extend or acquire an ace as there is never any guarantee that those types of players can be produced internally.
I guess from I gathered on the these prospect sites, Whitley was our main pitching prospect besides some possible third to fourth starter material prospects.
If you have whitley if he reaches his ceiling and four or five middle rotation starters, you should be good to go. Trade for a guy if you think you need to at the deadline when that arrives.
Whitley is probably actually a top 5 pitching prospect in all of baseball. He’s going to be that good. Martes and Paulino technically aren’t prospects anymore. However, they do both still have plenty of upside. Martes much more than Paulino. Bukauskas has MOR potential with the floor of a solid reliever. Perez is more difficult to project at this point but I’d have to think his absolute floor is an average loogy. I don’t know if I’d say that there’s dozens of prospects who have a legit chance to contribute in the majors. In our system right now the odds are that at the very least 3-4 of our top 10 will never actually make significant contributions in the majors. Out of Whitley, Martes, Paulino, Bukauskas and Perez it would be a success if two of them turned out to be key pieces of our rotation moving forward. Maybe add in one more as a decent reliever. I would obviously love for all of those guys to reach their full potential as quality major leaguers but that probably won’t happen. At some point we will have to add a piece to the rotation. Whether that’s via trade or free agency. Although, if Whitley turns out to be the true ace we think he will be, then any trade/free agent acquisition for a TOR starter would only be the cherry on top.
