Not sure what they will get for Meyers, just that there seems to be a lot of smoke around him being traded. My guess is it ends up as a straight prospect for player trade, netting Houston a prospect that ends up fitting in the back end of their org top 10. I would love to see them flip him for a comp pick. The only other idea is if Houston ends up getting Ragans, Meyers could be a part of that.
With us, Burrows wil have a 2.5 ERA However, his arm will fall off in a year and a half. Wishing a healthy season. Last season could have been special if not for our most important hitters going down.
Absolutely. Like you said, its not a big enough sample size to have data to support it. But it does seem like whatever cutting-edge stuff these franchises are doing to maximize their pitchers is leading to more injuries.
I think that's a fair position to take. But I think, like not being willing to sign free agents to longer deals, it just means you'll never get free agents that are in demand. Because those players don't have to settle for these restrictions. You'll always be getting people that, for one reason or another, other teams didn't love. And that's not necessarily the wrong move as far as maximizing wins. Just expect fans to be disappointed every offseason watching the better players with fewer questionmarks going elsewhere. The strategy for the Astros in that scenario has to be player development and some luck that their FA signings turn out more like Morton and Brantley then Abreu and Walker.
Pirates have to get some offense for Skenes. They have almost no shot at resigning him, but it's negative unless they can show him they are committed to putting winning pieces around him. If Oneil Cruz can figure it out, they can have a pretty decent offense next year. If Jones can rejoin the rotation in the 2nd half, they have an outside shot at the WC. The central is turning into a tough little division.
Price may seem steep, but considering the years of control its worth it. if Burrows had a breakout year with the Pirates this year and the Astros tried trading for him during the trade deadline, it would have cost much more
In what ways was the price steep? We gave up a OF that can't hit consistently and a pitcher that can't throw strikes consistently.
It’s all in the eye of the evaluator. Are they the org’s 2 best prospect, one a CF with 30/40 potential and the other a future ToR SP? Or are they a couple of flawed prospects, one a guy who will strike out too much to ever be an everyday player, the other a 5’8” middle reliever?
Keith Law’s breakdown on the Astros part of the trade for those interested: Oddly enough, there’s only one actual prospect among the six in the deal: right-hander Anderson Brito, who goes from Houston to the Rays along with outfielder Jacob Melton, who just graduated from prospect status. Brito is 5-foot-10 and missed the last three months of the 2025 season with a stress reaction in his throwing shoulder, but he returned to sit 95-98 in the Arizona Fall League with a plus slider/sweeper. There’s some effort late in his delivery and he has had trouble throwing strikes, with a 13.4 percent walk rate in the regular season in High A. He’s 21 and has thrown barely 100 professional innings, however, so he’s also not a finished product. I would start him as long as he’s able, with at least 60/40 odds that he ends up in the bullpen. Melton is a super-athletic outfielder whose ceiling is as a platoon player. He struck out a third of the time in his MLB debut this past year, and he has never hit lefties in pro ball. He’s a plus runner and 70 defender in center with plus raw power, so there’s a path for him to play semi-regularly, and if you squint, you might see a Kevin Kiermaier starter kit here. The Astros get Mike Burrows, a right-hander who’ll sit 94-95 and can flash a plus curveball, but who’s had a lot of inconsistency and battled injuries, including 2023 Tommy John surgery. He’s an interesting project who may be better suited to the Astros’ preferred style of pitching. He’s already dropped his arm angle a little, and another adjustment there could get him to be more of that lower attack angle, riding fastball type of starter. I think Burrows is a project for Houston, offering them some of the basic characteristics they like. His potential upside is entirely a function of how well he can adapt under their system, which has had quite a bit of success with other pitchers, too. I can see the logic here for all three teams. The Pirates gave up a pitching prospect in Burrows, who hadn’t panned out and hasn’t stayed healthy that much, to get a difference-making bat in left field in Lowe. This also allows them to start Jhostynxon Garcia, acquired in the Johan Oviedo trade, in Triple A to work on his swing decisions, as their outfield is full right now on paper. If they choose, this could allow them to move on from the disappointing Gonzales at second base. They also add some bullpen and outfield depth. The Astros flip a high-variance arm in Brito, who’s been hurt recently and has high reliever risk, plus an outfielder in Melton who wasn’t going to play every day for them. They end up with a pitcher in Burrows who probably fits their developmental profile. The Rays move Lowe’s $11.5 million salary for next year and get that high-variance arm in Brito, plus the kind of center fielder with power they seem to like in Melton, although I don’t think they’ve done a great job turning any of those types of players into better hitters. If you’re inferring that I like Tampa’s end of this the least, that’s probably right, although I don’t hate it by any means. Lowe didn’t really fit for them, and it’s money they didn’t need to spend on him specifically for maybe a 2-WAR season and likely less.
$1.5M over, what a waste. Some dumbass didn’t add right and gave the wrong number for what Minnesota needed to eat on Correa’s contract. Cost them a 2nd round pick.
Definitely a fireable mistake! Too bad they couldn't/didn't do something like defer some of Abreu's money after the deadline to lower the present value for CBT calculations.
Today’s trade moved Houston up one spot in the total 2026 war projections (from 11th to 10th). They project Burrows for 1.8 fwar over 130 ip. If he were to carry that production rate thru 160 ip he’d be a 2+ fwar pitcher which would make him a solid #4 or low end #3 SP.
