Royals: OF Lane Thomas crushes LHP and is cheap. Pair him with Wade and you probably have a Paredes-level hitter. OF Starling Marte has been above average against RHP this season and last season. SP Michael Wacha has been very good. SP Seth Lugo can eat innings. SP Kris Bubic has a very high ceiling and will be ready to come off the IL in a couple weeks. Houston's depth might make it ok to take a chance on a buy-low rental SP like Bubic. RP Lucas Erceg is a potential buy-low controllable setup man. RP Daniel Lynch is a good controllable RP.
Bryce and Smith may not be world beaters , or first division regulars . But they are young , cheap , and very good defensive OF'ers . When you play both of them in the corners , the opposing offense has to adjust. That's very valuable The obvious place to move the OF is CF , but as.much as we all wish we had George springer , we don't have the budget for a player like him . Buxton is a pipe dream imo The other interesting solution , but it would be for next year is to move smith to CF and shop for more offense at the corner. That being said , you could give it a try , especially if the market breaks in your favor . As others have said I beleive @Nook I do also wish we got more lamonte wade sample . Next year we have Correa coming back too . I know some people were against the Correa trade , but we did not give up a lot to get him and his deal gets very affordable down the line. My questions /priorities for the rest of the season given we've put ourselves in the playoffs picture ... Can we get value for meyers /trammell / fido ?You can trade one of those guys . They are all relatively cheap . What do you need to do to get altuve and yordan and pena playing their best in Sept/Oct ? Do it . Yordan and pena are true superstar players . You need them. Altuve has the widest variance. You can't have him in a huge mental /physical hole as the playoffs come around ... He will play. Unless you wanna try Allen/Matthews at 2b Our pitching is a bit specious , but we have a lot of pieces and just have to hope they are breaking the right way down the stretch . I can honestly see a pretty quiet deadline for us. Maybe if we start losing we will sell. We don't have an abundance of chips to push in for a big trade , nor IMO is there a clear need and financial ability to bring in a stud. Our biggest X factor on the trade market would have been if we were selling pena / walker .
To me , the biggest tragedy for the astros this year is the Correa injury . There will be haters that say it was to be expected, but it wasn't even the bad ankle . You expect a nagging injury or having to miss a dozen games here or there . I don't think anyone would be crazy to say maybe a rational expectation was for Correa to play like 120-130 games . Anyways , he was having a great year . All of Correa , paredes and walker all have OPS+ in the 115-120 range . Yordan is doing mvp things . The pitching is coming around . We would be among the top contenders imo
Regular rest and rotating in/out of the DH spot. The problem is that they need to play to win games and can't afford to have off days.
Yes- I know Wacha has been discussed several times, and most of the other ones you listed as well. Wacha apparently has more control than some of the other targets and that appeals to the Astros. Bubic and Erceg are players the Astros are also interested in, but in the case of Bubic, the Royals think it is possible they get more than expected for him. Erceg is someone they will move but need something more than what Astros have been discussing with them. Lugo comes down to money. If Crane is serious about wanting to win the division - he will need to spend money. There are players out there that are available, but it will cost money this season and maybe next season. Someone like Lugo and Wacha are middle of the rotation guys that can eat innings and be competitive. The Astros were interested in Taylor Ward (and still are) - but the Astros were asking the Orioles to eat some of the money... which seems absurd to me.
If the Astros find a way to get a starting corner outfielder - they would likely move Cam Smith to CF. Dana Brown is a big believer in his glove. The Astros are again looking at a platoon slip fit as well - and that is even if they get someone like Ward. Don't be shocked if Arrighetti is skipped in the rotation and even sent down for a short stint for the purposes of rest. I know the Astros have guys coming back from the DL that are pitchers -- but the Astros are being aggressive looking for a starting pitcher in the middle of the rotation.
I would be pretty hesitant to give up big value for Ward. He scares me because he is bad defensively and his good numbers this year are due to drawing walks and getting good batted ball luck, not actually hitting the ball; he has some of the worst bat speed in the league. But he has consistently produced and can face both RHP and LHP, and he’s a rental without a big salary, so I can see the appeal. I am ok with Houston using platoons to improve the OF offense. Wade and Meyers can already combine to provide a solid platoon imho. So they just need one composite hitter; if that comes from 2 different players that works. Bottom line is that for now Loperfido and Matthews are not guys you want playing a lot in the playoffs. A shopping list of 1 elite hitting OF (that might be split into 2 platoon hitters), 1 MOR SP, and 1 upside RHRP is what they should be working to add.
As for Ward - the Astros were not talking about giving up any of their top 5 prospects or lower-level prospects. So far most of the names I have heard are moveable assets or duplicative. Ward seems to be a target they hoped they could get early, but looks like that isn't the case for right now. Most of the names I have heard are guys like Brice Matthews, Zach Cole, Sullivan and some pitchers as well. The only bigger names I have heard mentioned are Blubaugh and Janek (which makes zero sense to me because he is injured I believe). A lot of rentals being discussed by the Astros - but Wacha and a couple other pitchers (Detmers) are under control in 2027.
Not perfect, but on baseball reference you can look up a pitcher's splits to see how they did with each catcher.
Also --- don't be shocked if the M's are very aggressive as well. They have an elite farm system right now and have like 5 of the top two or three dozen prospects in baseball and depth too.
Astros are wise to target rentals and platoon/complementary players, because they will have no chance of landing any proven difference makers; too many serious buyers with way more prospect and money.
