You would pickup a cheap contract say like Kennedy or Graveman. Not the type of player where you would have to trade Verlander to make room for a star type player.
One notable thing about Houston regarding the trade deadline is that they may have a severe roster crunch this fall. Their 40 man is full, they have 5 guys on the 60 day DL, and another suspended. They only have 4 pending free agents. I don't see a ton of obvious DFAs. And importantly, they have a huge Rule 5 eligible class that I'd tier like this: Must protect: SS Jeremy Pena* Should protect: C MIke Papierski, OF Ronnie Dawson, OF Jake Meyers, RHP Austin Hansen*, RHP Brett Conine*, RHP Shawn Dubin*, 3B Joe Perez*, LHP Jonathan Bermudez, RHP Angel Macuare* Questionable: OF Jose Siri, IF Alex De Goti, OF Bryan De La Cruz, LHP Ryan Hartman, RHP Carson LaRue, RP Riley Ferrell, IF Luis Santana*, OF Alex McKenna, RHP JP France, RHP Brett Daniels, RHP Cesar Rosado, RHP Chad Donato, RP Ronel Blanco, C Scott Manea* Light risk: DH JJ Matijevic, RP Kit Scheetz, RP Seth Martinez, IF Enmanuel Valdez, OF Corey Julks, C Nerio Rodriguez, RP Kyle Serrano, RHP Cody Deason, RHP Jose Alberto Rivera*, C Nathan Perry* No risk: IF David Hensley, C Colton Shaver, IF Mike Wielansky, IF CJ Hinojosa, IF Yadiel Rivera, OF Marty Costes, C Lorenzo Quintana, RP Hector Velazquez, RP Michael Kelly, RP Ryan Eades, 1B Scott Schreiber, 1B Jake Adams, OF Chandler Taylor, OF Ross Adolph, C Jose Alvarez, IF Yeuris Ramirez, LHP Parker Mushinski, RHP Brandon Lawson, RHP Colin McKee, RHP Layne Henderson, RP Nick Hernandez, RP Tommy DeJuneas, RP John Olczak, C Alex Holderbach, OF Ramiro Rodriguez, OF Wilyer Abreu, C Juan Paulino, RP Daniel Procopio, RP Yeremi Ceballos, RP Riley Cabral, RHP RJ Freure, RHP Matt Ruppenthal, RHP Mark Moclair, LHP JP Lopez, RP Devin Conn, IF Ronaldo Urdaneta, RHP Freylin Garcia, IF Yorbin Cueta, C Cesar Salazar, IF Deury Carrasco, OF Carlos Machado, RHP Leovanny Rodriguez, LHP Carmen Benedetti, C Gerry Castillo, RHP Flaer Gonzalez, others So Houston is going to have to clear some roster space. They have a glut of upper level 3rd tier pitching prospects who will warrant a 40 man roster spot this fall. I would guess they will heavily shop guys from that "should protect" list as well as the back end of their current 40 man to see what value they can get out of it; those groups should hold enough value to add a good reliever or two and supplement a potential trade for a CF.
Smith, Raley, Greinke, Verlander, and Correa are free agents Robel Garcia and Taylor Jones should be off the 40 man I don't expect Garza to hang on much longer I don't expect Austin Pruitt to be back unless he somehow gets healthy and outperforms his current career numbers Probably time to move on from Stubbs after this season and replace him on the 40 man with Papierski Next spring training the Astros could bite the bullet and put Whitley on the MLB 60 day IL. It will start his clock but will open another spot on the 40 man until he comes back later in the season. Wouldn't be surprised if at least one of Toro or Nova are traded
Toro looks like he might have figured something out at the plate. Hopefully they give him a chance to showcase what he may now have in Houston before/if they deal him. I wonder why they haven't brought him up to replace Robel and have Bregman play SS when Correa is out of the lineup.
Not convinced on Toro. He hit well in 2019 in AA and AAA with a .324 BA and a .938 OPS. Has done nothing in MLB. He will probably get another shot but 177 ABs in MLB and not much to show for it. Hope I am wrong.
Goldstein on Astros deadline approach: Our lineup remains one of the best in baseball. Our rotation is well above-average. Our bullpen is a bit of a mess. We’re 100% focused on relievers and anticipate acquiring multiple ‘pen arms to help us deliver the innings the get us to Ryan Pressly, as we’ve already lost multiple games because our middle relief group couldn’t get the job done. We have one million pitching prospects with big velo and/or big spin rates who we are sure interest you.
The bullpen outside of Pressly and Javier is trash!! In need of SERIOUS upgrade. Funny how a few on here are whining and complaining that they need a new CF. Any assets and $ available should be used to address the pen.
I didn’t know Raley’s deal let him be a FA after this season. That sucks. I only see Robel Garcia, Garrett Stubbs, and maybe Nivaldo Rodriguez as DFA candidates, and all 3 of those guys would probably be claimed. Jones’ bat has real upside I think it likely he would be claimed. If Pruitt is healthy I think Click wants him on the roster. All things considered I still think they’re going to have a roster crunch and that will factor into their deadline approach.
Isn't Jones older than half our regular lineup? Upside? They have a window to win now. They have a stellar lineup and good starting pitching. Those are the two hardest aspects to construct on any winner.... the bullpen is one of the easier aspects. This isn't the time to **** around and worry about fringe backup guys who aren't projected to be everyday players... they need viable proven candidates in the bullpen that don't get "excited" simply because they're pitching in front of crowds. Unfortunately the pandemic pen of Scrubb, Paredes, Raley, and Taylor aren't exactly dependable as the intensity of the games has gone up (and there's more of a book on all of them... including possible health factors with all of them).
They just added him before his outing. Not sure why, but I doubt one incredibly bad outing is enough to change their mind. Though, overall agree with post that there is plenty of goes that can be cut. Guys that can only pitch 1-inning, and can't do it well are expendable. I think people are going to be really pissed off at the trade deadline. I expect the Astros will target 1-2 middle relievers like Goldstein is implying, but I don't think they will be adding the closer and setup men types that people want.
They need depth and vets. Guys grow into a role... and Stanek, with less overuse, still has good enough stuff to be a late inning reliever. Raley is up/down but more up lately... and can be effective if healthy. Its the guys before them that are a complete shitshow. And again, they simply need this for the regular season. They'll have more than enough in the post season. Unless Abreu gets back (and is used appropriately), James gets back and stays healthy, and whatever is going on with Baez resolves itself... they're going to need more arms. Paredes unfortunately doesn't have command... and given that he'll go down to AAA and smoke everybody, its more than just physical. Scrubb/Taylor need to get fully healthy... Dusty will probably have more faith in the latter, which will lead to over-use.
Taylor and Raley are likely fine going forward. Taylor had something messing with the slider earlier in the season (low velo with less movement), but it looks back. Maybe those two aren't ideal as setup men, but it is very hard to have the best lineup, a top 5 rotation, Pressly and Javier in the pen, and loaded with setup men while having 8-9 pitchers on the IL most of the time. This Astros team may not be the best regular season team, but they look to be able to shove starting pitcher after starting pitcher with Pressly every now and then for the playoffs.
I expect they will go depth and young. Maybe not get a guy quite as good as Ryan Pressly, but someone like him before he was an Astro that can get outs on a team that doesn't appreciate his talent at the moment. I expect Astros will have to deal guys that might be starters. I'm not sure Astros will want to do that for a rental that has been proposed by many.
Agreed. They don't need to be the best at everything. But they do need bullpen pitchers who have both confidence and experience. Or confidence and ability (which translates to experience if they're young and they stick). Right now there is a severe lack of the former which basically mitigates the latter.
Exactly. May just require cash. Bad teams don't need good bullpen guys. Just don't do an Alvarez for Fields like trade... lol.
Agree. They have zero money and very little in the way of prospects and their roster is already very deep. Nobody should be expecting anything major. Packaging up young pitching from the back of the 40 man and the pending Rule 5 class (guys like Ivey, Paredes, Taylor, Abreu, Scrubb, Solomon, Dubin, Hansen, Torres) to flip for a good undervalued reliever or two on a minimum salary (Scott Barlow and Jose Cisnero types) should be the order of the day.
If the Astros get to the postseason our "bullpen" should be fine with 3 starters and Pressly. So I'm fine with Click not investing any real assets in the pen. But with every new turd this pen drops, it gets harder and harder to not justify throwing a few lesser assets at competent middle relief.
Last night was the first bullpen meltdown in a while that wasn't mostly Abreu or Stanek on fumes, Scrubb, Paredes (he was there last night, but was mostly just the cake topper to an already imploded cake), or extra innings in which good pitchers already spent.
