2025 Hypothetical Astros Trades Thread

They need 3 outfield bats. Maybe the worst offensive outfield in baseball

 

Jake Meyers has a career .671 OPS, Cam Smith has a .665 OPS, both are great defensive players

Jo Adell has a .691 OPS, Mickey Moniak had a .673 OPS prior to joining the Rockies and has a .703 OPS away from Coors. Both are bad defensive players. I don't see how those 2 move the meter in the slightest much less provide "huge improvement". I'll take my chances on Myers glove and the likelihood that he will return to an average level of offensive suckiness by seasons end. If the Astros insist on trying to win, then try to win. Don't shuffle the scrub deck chairs.

Nootbaar I'm OK with targeting because he's actually been a consistently solid bat in his career, has a good glove and could work in a platoon. Meyers and Cam have both been fine vs. LHP for their careers.

 

^^^ this guy gets it

I was just responding to your question: Would Teng or Burrows bring back Nootbar?

The answer is "no". The question is moot.

 

You need to look at 2026 instead of careers. Players change greatly over time.

I HATE Adell and would never want him on my Astros. Besides, he hits right-handed so doesn't fit. (I Just kept including him from previous posts in the thread)

But he has a .739 OPS outside of Anaheim this year and .750 last year. That is a considerable improvement over the guys who play LF now.

Moniak has a .771 OPS away from Coors this year and a 1.022 OPS vs RH pitching. I don't know how to sort both RHP and away but it is almost certainly .771 or better.

Nootbar is my choice but there is no world where Moniak is not a huge upgrade to this team.

 

Moniak has 165 PA this season, and only 71 away from Coors field

Brice Matthews has an .857 OPS in 107 PA away from MMP, that's one half of an all star platoon right there. Forgive me if I don't put too much stock in small sample sizes.

Moniak could have a decent use as a platoon partner...while we likely sacrifice defense. Or it could also work out just as well as Sanchez did for us last season. This all deck chair shuffling, the likely cone of possibility for the team will not change noticeably with these possible fringy upgrades. There's the very real possibility that Moniak will be a not good player for us in half a season, or that Meyers will be pretty good for half a season. We've seen both happen.

 

That’s not necessarily true as Adell has crushed LHP and Wade certainly isn’t going to provide that. No one on this roster outside of Yordan has even been close to Adell against LHP since the start of last season.

I doubt he would be happy in a platoon situation though so doesn’t really matter.

 

Not sure how realistic Buxton is but they have said they are open to moving Jeffers. Definitely wouldn’t be opposed to getting off the Yainer train if they do decide to go for it.

 

Either Cam or Matthews should be on the table when it comes to adding an OF at the deadline.

 

Yep and this is on Dana and his failures in trades, scouting. I said in spring training that the only hope for this offense was to trade for an OF bat and hope that Cam and Diaz came around. Dana chose to do nothing.

Thing is, with Wade coming back and platooning with either Matthews or Cam, if they were to trade for an avg to slightly above avg hitting OF the offense would be playoff worthy.

 

Those are the 2 best outfielders currently on this team and also most likely to be the best in 2027-2030.

Of course they aren't untouchable but if you are actively shopping them then you either need 2 OF instead of 1, or just give up on 2026.

And if you are giving up on 2026, its dumb to use young cheap players with 5+ years of control as your trade assets.

I am not particularly attached and, in a vacuum, I don't care if they are traded but IMO they are not the ones you try to trade away.

 

Depends on how you see them as players in the future. I'm not as high on either one of them as most on here. They will become solid everyday players in time. But not star level players. I see them at best on the Larnich, Nootbar level players eventually. So I would have no problem trading either one of these guys. Which one do you think will become the better player?

 

I don't know how feasible it is. I guess it depends on if the twins want to win now or later. That being said, I would probably do it.

 

Unless something changes, it looks like there is going to be a greater amount of quality SPs than OF bats on the market. That’s actually a pretty great list of rental starters. The Yankees, Rays, Mariners, Brewers, Dodgers, and Phillies don’t really have a huge need for SP either so the cost could actually be somewhat reasonable.

A lefty starter would be ideal just to balance out the looks we are giving a team during a playoff series. Bubic, Rogers or Ray would be a great addition. Rogers seems to finally be figuring it out this season after being absolutely dominant last season.

 

Maybe if we tell them that they don't have to eat their portion of Correa's salary, they would do it. I know they want to cut payroll.