2023 MLB trade deadline: Five contenders with gaping holes Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff WriterAug 4, 2023, The 2023 MLB trade deadline has passed. The major moves of the season have been made. Teams will still tweak their rosters with call-ups and waiver claims. There will even be a handful of trades, as some minor leaguers can still be dealt. Mostly though, we can now declare that teams are what they are. Through Wednesday's games, 20 of the 30 teams still had better than a one in 10 shot at the postseason, per my simulations. The teams in that group have a wide range of probabilities. The Atlanta Braves made the postseason in all 10,000 sims during my latest run; the New York Yankees made it just 1,241 times (or 12.4%). So while some teams have rosier outlooks than others, there is much left to be settled over the last two months of the regular season. As always, a lot of players changed teams in the days and weeks before the deadline, as clubs clamored to fix as many roster flaws as possible. But only so many upgrades were available, and no teams got everything they wanted. Now teams will have to get creative when it comes to papering over underperforming positions and filling out the depth chart where a key injury has struck. Let's run through some of these lingering roster holes of greatest potential impact on the playoff races. As I did last year at this time, I note each team's season-to-date performance at a spot (by baseball-reference.com's positional WAR) and rest-of-season forecast (per FanGraphs). I'll also preview some potential solutions for these problem spots now that we know a major trade is not going to fix things. Houston Astros Problem position: Catcher (24th season to date, 29th rest of season) Little by little, the 2023 Astros have come to resemble the team we've seen as a playoff fixture. That certainly seems true now that Houston has reacquired Justin Verlander. Those of us who have become accustomed to ending every baseball season in Houston, might want to start booking hotel reservations. Yet, there is no doubt that these Astros have a smaller margin for error than Houston clubs of recent vintage. Even with their midseason rise to the cusp of first place in the AL West, Houston is on pace to record a modest plus-92 run differential this season. That works out to 0.57 runs per game, a figure that is less than half of every Astros club since Houston won the 2017 World Series, with the exception of the pandemic season. During the 2017 to 2023 window, which we might refer to as the Astros Era (even if many would not admit that), Houston's .781 overall OPS is a hair's breadth behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best mark in the majors. But the Astros catchers during this time have hit .213/.294/.378 for a .672 OPS that ranks 23rd in the majors. This season, Astros catchers have been worse than usual with the stick, slashing at .212/.265/.387. Now, I'm lumping all the Astros catchers together but there is a good reason I'm about to stop doing that. Martin Maldonado has never been a good hitter. He owns a 70 OPS+ compiled in nearly 3,600 career plate appearances. The Astros are well aware of this, of course, and have always selected catchers for defense. They've won a lot of games doing this. Here's the thing: The Astros have not had an option to turn the bulk of their backstop time over to a catcher with hitting numbers like Yainer Diaz has put up. We know Astros pitchers love working with Maldonado, who just caught his third no-hitter for the team when he teamed up with Framber Valdez during Tuesday's 93-pitch gem. Still, while we know that catcher ERA/batter-against numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, we can observe Houston's pitchers have actually performed a little better with Diaz behind the plate. We know Maldonado will keep getting the majority of playing time. He's the only Astros catcher to receive Valdez this season and was Verlander's primary catcher in 2022. But maybe, just maybe, Dusty Baker might want to mix Diaz in to work with his aces a few times. Just to see how it works out. That added offense would be nice.
He was easily the bigger loss in that trade. You ha e to go back to Kyle Tucker to find someone performing at a comparable level at the same age and league. I think Clifford will be a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball halfway through next year.
And he was an 11th round pick with slot manipulation to ensure the bonus. I don’t see a reason why Brown (who has apparently more experience/success with the draft than Click had) can’t also find a similar fast rising prospect in the upcoming years?
The Astros informed reporters that they’ve released reliever Blake Taylor and infielder Joe Perez. Both players had cleared outright waivers this afternoon. Rather than retain them at Triple-A Sugar Land, Houston elected to move on entirely. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/astros-release-blake-taylor-joe-perez.html
I suspect that both were blocking prospects that the Astros wanted to promote or 40 man roster spots that they needed to open.
So has Dubon already taken Julks's OF playing time with Meyers winning back some of his PT as well? I expect Alvarez in LF and Chas in CF for the next game with Framber on the mound. With Javier on the mound after that, I am expecting Dubon in CF and Chas in LF.
I'd say frustrating instead of bizarre. I think it is easier to see plays that arm strength comes into play (i.e., when arm strength is needed, it is vital) than when a player gets a good jump and makes a difficult play look easy. With throwing out Stanton, I am glad he made the play, but I fear it is going to lead to more Dubon in CF at the expense of Meyers. I'm hoping for Meyers at least twice in CF for every time Dubon is in CF going forward. Granted: I could just be pessimistic and Meyers may be the CF going forward when Yordan isn't in LF.
It is just wild to me that someone can be a part of MLB as long as Dusty has and still fail to understand fairly fundamental concepts pertaining to his job like what separates good CFs from not good CFs, and whether or not hitters can possess a reverse platoon skill. Might as well bring in a life coach or something to manage the team if it’s permissible to be that ignorant.
I'm certainly on board for Singleton over Julks. However I'm guessing this will result in even less playing time for Diaz with Singleton being lefthanded. Now Dusty has an excuse regardless of what handedness the opposing pitcher is. Singleton should be a PH and occasional DH when Diaz catches. I wouldn't mind him taking some AB's from Abreu, but I highly doubt that will happen.
It would be great if Singleton were capable of playing LF or 3B in addition to 1B, but that aside, he’s an excellent fit at the bottom of Houston’s roster. He has undeniable elite lefthanded power in his bat and represents a threat to go yard every time he comes up to the plate. If Houston isn’t going to carry 3 catchers, then I would rather carry Singleton than anyone else currently in AAA, especially with Dubon able to play CF.
Agree except as clubber says Dusty is very tied to using a lefty against a RHP regardless of numbers, I can easily see this further cutting into Diaz plate appearances
