I like both these moves a lot. 1) I think Elias might go for Solomon and James as pitchers he was involved with acquiring in the first place. He might not like James already being in arb2 season and unable to make the MLB team. He may ask for a younger guy like Tamarez or Bermudez who I would be fine to substitute. 2) I hate to give up Leon and Valdez who I am excited to see try their talent in the bigs. But Valdez is destined for a bench role which can be replaced. Leon can be dealt because Reynolds, Tucker, and Meyers are a good OF and there are a couple of exciting prospects like Barber and Brewer who could be ready by 2024.
Both deals look reasonable. I would like it better if they were able to swap a different pitching prospect for Abreu since I think shipping out both Javier and Abreu would put a ding in their pitching depth. But overall fair deals and not devastating for the Astros, and that lineup is stacked. But my guess is Pittsburgh would be looking for a more top-heavy deal if they trade Reynolds.
Urquidy is not mentioned anywhere in that post. He gets sent to AAA in this scenario to try and get it back together. We would also still have Bielak as depth. Add in Brown and Whitley in AAA, along with Bermudez, France, and Donato, and I think the depth is fine. Hopefully it doesn’t come down to the last 3, but I think we’d still have depth.
One thing I worry about is Pittsburgh wanting younger guts further from arbitration or top end prospects. This applies to Javier and Abreu. They may ask for Brown and/or L.Garcia which I would be very hesitant on.
I will be surprised if the Astros give up a whole lot of young assets at the deadline. They are going to have more holes to fill next season
The issue I see is that a contending team wants to have an established roster with few young unproven players they need to count on. The Astros have done a great job of bringing a couple up each year to mesh with the veterans. Based on the current roster with no veteran pickups the team is looking at possible: Korey Lee replacing Jason Castro J.J. Matijevic or Taylor Jones replacing Yuli Pedro Leon replacing Brantley Emmanuel Valdez or David Hensley replacing Diaz Hunter Brown possibly in the rotation. Thats a lot of unproven guys to be in important roles for a team that expects to compete.
I agree. The problem as some of these trade proposals have shown is it will be difficult for the Astros to get a player with multiple years of team control like Bryan Reyonlds without hurting the major league roster. One issue for the Astros is outside of Hunter Brown the top prospects in the organization have hurt their value. Specifically, Korey Lee, Alex Santos, Shawn Dubin, Peter Solomon, Joe Perez, and Pedro Leon to a lesser degree. I don't believe a package centered on Hunter Brown and Colin Barber who hasn't even gotten out of A ball gets it done. You will need to include guys like Luis Garcia and Bryan Abreu. I don't even think Javier is what they are looking for. Why would they bother trading Reynolds for someone with the same amount of team control? Most likely, if Reyonlds becomes available, we will be soundly outbid by a team with multiple top 100 prospects and 6 full years of team control. I bet the Yankees might throw one of their 2 shortstop prospects into the mix for example.... The other problem is the pitching prospects in AAA and AA have been pretty bad overall. Hunter Brown and Bielak are the only starters with some success in AAA. Solomon, Dubin, France, Conine, Ivey, and Bermudez have been verying degrees of bad. AA is more of the same outside of Endersby. Tamarez has been okay but not as good as most hoped. Guys like Tyler Brown, Julio Robaino, and Jaime Melendez have been bad. i don't think the Astros are in a position to trade Hunter Brown right now. Who knows what Whitley will be and most of the other upper level pitching prospects have really struggled. Verlander is going to be a free agent and Odorizzi will likely be leaving. The "rotational depth" could get very short very quick if you trade a Hunter Brown, Luis Garica, or Cristian Javier out of this organization. I think the Astros need to focus on rentals at 1st base, catcher, and possibly an outfielder. Maybe a lefty reliever or a righty that does really well against lefties. Beyond that, I'm not expecting the mega move this year. They aren't in a great position like when they traded for Cole and only gave up players that were blocked at the MLB level. Hell, If Conforto gets healthy signing him where it only costs a prorated salary instead of trading prospects could make sense. If Meyers, McCormick, and Siri aren't getting it done in CF slide Tucker to CF and put Conforto in RF for the end of the season and the playoffs.
Agreed, at some point the house of cards will fall. The Astros will not be able to keep losing players that are very productive because of salary and replace them with homegrown players that can produce close to as well. The minor league system overall has had a bad season. This doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom as ever since Crane bought the Astros we have had a very good system but there have been some seasons that were down. Hell, look at the international pitching situation. For years the Astros under Luhnow emphasized the pipeline and the pitchers did not make any prospect lists and they didn't really even put up great numbers and now the Astros have Valdez, Garcia, Javier and Urquidy in their rotation all from the international Latin American market. Having said that, when it comes to trade their isn't a lot out there for the Astros to offer. Pedro Leon is an all star if he cuts his K's down but he has shown no strong inclination to do that. He is under long term control as a centerfielder and are the Astros going to move him for a rental or one year of control when you consider there is a 20% chance Leon figures it out and is the CF for the next half decade? Brown is interesting but if I am a team trading for him, I may see him as a future reliever. He struggles keeping it together and he isn't that young. Whitley doesn't have much value. So I think the Astros are going to do things like target Josh Bell and Mancini and maybe a backup catcher because the relative cost is going to be JAG's that will be a value for years but nothing special. I am not even sure they would deal Urquidy because he isn't a FA until 2026.
Agree It would likely be impossible to get both of those guys from Pittsburgh without Brown being included
I would guess our front office believes, like many others, that if you can just get to the playoffs and get hot you have a chance We have filled a few big holes already and with little doubt will be in the playoffs again. I would love a big move like the Reynolds mention, but would he very very surprised to see it happen
Everyone is throwing out dumb lineups so I concocted the dumbest one I could think of, complete with everyone in incorrect positions except machete.
How do you guys feel about a 2023 regular lineup of: Altuve Pena Bregman Alvarez Tucker Meyers Matijevic Leon K.Lee/Maldy Of course I don't want to see Bregman hitting 3rd but much of that will be decided based on if Dusty comes back.
The problem is a lot of the times these different positions are the same guy. Most teams don’t have a perfect layout like that, like ever, in the history of baseball.
What about a guy like Nelson Cruz from WASH? After this yr he has a mutual option so a team trading for him this yr could decline the option. He provides power off the bench and could DH as well. Don't think it would cost much to get him either. Thoughts?
It's not a great fit because he can only DH. He's played 7 innings in the field in one game at 1B since 2019. So you going to run Brantley and Alvarez in the outfield on a regular basis? Will they actually move Tucker to CF? I think Mancini or Bell are better fits.
I hear what you're saying. I was just looking at it from a perspective of he won't be expensive to get (prospects) compared to other options and he brings some power off the bench.
I’ve suggested that a couple times. He could be the platoon partner for Brantley (he Dah’s and Yordan plays LF against LHP and of course a really good PH for catcher late in games where we are trailing. And like you said- should cost nothing.
