<3 days to go. Daily hypothetical today is an Orioles Rental Buffet: Astros get: CF Cedric Mullins LF Ryan O’Hearn SP Charlie Morton RP Seranthony Dominguez $9M Orioles get: P Ethan Pecko P AJ Blubaugh P Bryce Mayer P Jose Fleury OF Chas McCormick Astros fill all their holes and keep their best prospects and stay under the CBT. Orioles get a boatload of near-ready high ceiling pitching prospects. My guess is they’d demand Ullola or Brito be included but hopefully this package would be enough; it’s still a lot to give up for a bunch of limited rentals. Playoff roster: CF Mullins SS Pena DH Alvarez 2B Altuve LF O’Hearn 1B Walker C Caratini RF Smith 3B Dubon Bench: Matthews, Diaz, Melton, Trammell SP: Valdez, Brown, Morton, Arrighetti RP: Hader, Abreu, Dominguez, King, Sousa, Javier, Okert, McCullers, Garcia That’s a pretty stacked roster. The offseason would see Meyers and Paredes replace Mullins and O’Hearn on the roster. The Astros would have a big need for ToR SP next season.
It’s probably 50/50 with more downside than upside. There’s been no reports of him doing any baseball activities yet also he’s going to have been out 3+ weeks, which means he will probably need at least a week of rehab games, and that’s after he progresses from hitting off a tee to hitting BP to hitting live pitching and fielding. So barring setbacks the earliest I can see him back would be the last week in August but more likely his timeline is mid-September, which certainly puts his season in jeopardy.
I will be surprised if Kwan ends up anywhere but the Dodgers. Needs for contenders: Jays: RP, SP Yanks: SP Tigers: SS/CF, DH/OF, RP, SP (they’ve played above their heads) Astros: 3B, 2B/LF, SP, RP (injury epidemic) Mariners: 3B, RP Mets: CF/2B/3B Phillies: LF, 3B Brewers: SS/3B Cubs: SP, 3B Dodgers: LF Padres: LF, C, SP (assuming they trade Cease) Kwan to the Dodgers. Suarez to the Cubs (although I hope the Mariners overpay for him). Cease to the Jays or Yankees. I’m still hoping the Astros bring back Correa and Morton.
If you watch the video of Suarez, when the trainer touched his hand he winced pretty bad. I know they said the x-ray was clean, but I could easily see this being a longer term injury than what people are talking about right now Assuming he is ok though, i'll go Suarez to the Reds Kwan to the Blue Jays Vientos to the Mariners Cease to the Cubs O'Hearn and Taj to the Astros
Michael Conforto has hit well in July and is looking like the odd man out if LA adds an OF. If they are giving him away and Houston doesn’t have better options he might be worth a shot. Last year trades started pouring in consistently 3 days before the deadline, which means we should start seeing a lot of activity this afternoon.
Listening to Dana last night in the booth with Kalis and Blum he sounded pretty positive something was close to happening. He would not elaborate of course, but I would not be suprised if something went down today.
I would not trust anything Dana said that was Astros related. That said, I hope this time he's right. Lord knows we need a bat. And by Lord, I mean last night's mediocre starting pitcher who dominated our sorry lineup.
I believe he always says this kind of thing. No GM in their right mind would ever go to media and say "we're close" if it were true - all it does is give the other team leverage.
I don’t think there’s anything revealing (or dishonest) about a GM saying “we’re close to a trade” 3 days before the deadline. That’s a true statement every single year at that time and is true about probabiy a dozen different active discussions.
I guess it depends on your definition of "close". Of the dozen different active discussions, the vast majority won't end up happening. Meaning the trades weren't ever that close, to me. If a trade isn't done, it's because there's still at least one sticking point one party isn't willing to budge on. If you're telling someone a deal is actually truly close, you're telegraphing that you're the one that's willing to budge if it comes down to it.
Top 10 realistically available players I think would help the Astros the most in 2025: 1. Carlos Correa 2. Steven Kwan 3. Brandon Lowe 4. Oneil Cruz 5. Ryan O’Hearn 6. Willi Castro 7. Mackenzie Gore 8. Taj Bradley 9. Edward Cabrera 10. Michael Soroka HM: Eugenio Suarez, Marcell Ozuna, Brendan Donovan, Mickey Moniak, Sandy Alcantara, Dylan Cease, Mitch Keller, Luis Severino, Pablo Lopez, Charlie Morton
The Astros are talking to everyone to see what they can get done. Nolan Arenado is again having a strong defensive season, and he almost never strikes out, but he isn't driving the ball at all at this point.
Sub in Dubon for Arenado in that last sentence and it’s just as true. Arenado would be a really bad choice.
