I don't believe the Astros can afford to give up the prospects it would take to land a guy like Burnes or Cease that are under team control next season.
If the Guardians fall out of it, Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale could be available. The Cubs will likely also fall out, in which case Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly, and Jameson Taillon would probably be available. Same for the Giants, who have Alex Cobb, Sean Manaea, and Alex Wood to shop. But all of those would be pretty unlikely to be available until right before the deadline.
Bieber has the same amount of control left as Castillo did when he was traded last season. So what are the Astros giving up to come close to that value?
Probably not doable. But in the unlikely event that current minor league performances from April hold steady thru Jun, Drew Gilbert, Joey Loperfido, and Ryan Clifford will be considered elite prospects by the trade deadline and would possibly be enough if all packaged together. A lot of ifs and possibly’s in there tho. I would think they’ll wait to see how McCullers and Urquidy are lookin 3-4 weeks from now before doing anything. They can get by with Bielak and France for 2-3 starts each. But if they did make a move I’d expect it to be something low key and I actually wouldn’t hate if they got Corbin or Boyd if the price was right.
That is similar to what I was about to type. I expect the Astros to try and hang on until McCullers and Urquidy come back. I don't expect the Astros to acquire a pitcher that would make our playoff rotation provided McCullers and Urquidy are healthy. More likely... innings eaters and depth.
Going into this season i felt pitching depth was going to be an issue. What the Astros did last year from a pitching staff is very unheard of. It takes some luck and the Astros had it when it came to health and innings pitched. As i mentioned earlier this week, I hope the front office is aggressive sooner rather than later for SP. It's still early in the season and there are roughly 10 teams in both leagues that are at least 4 games back of the wild card spot. I do have faith in Dana Brown wanting to make a splash so we will see. As for LMJ, I think it's important to see if he is healthy. I love the dude but it's foolish to count on him until he proves otherwise. Snake called out some names earlier and I wouldn't be shocked to see Houston make a trade with Detriot. I've always like Matt Boyd. Last thing from me... I expect this offense will be humming once everyone is back healthy. Altuve and Brantley being back will have an impact. We all need to pray to the many face gods that offense can stay healthy throughout the year.
Most teams need 10 SP in a season. Houston entered the offseason with 7 guys with MLB experience (Valdez, Javier, McCullers, Garcia, Urquidy, Brown, Bielak) and 3 of their top prospects on the 40 man roster slotted for AAA (Whitley, Dubin, France). They were set. When McCullers got hurt they rolled with Brown, that has proven wise. Now Urquidy and Garcia are hurt and they are rolling with Bielak and France. Whitley and Dubin are both on the AAA IL. If they have more bad luck then they might have to go outside the Org but for now in 3-4 weeks max they should have McCullers and Urquidy back and be back to nearly fully stocked.
Nope. I'm still holding out for Ohtani after the Angels are out of it. But just as a rental. He'll be too expensive as a permanent addition.
Where do we think Abreu bottoms out at in terms of negative value? Seems clear he will cross the -1.0 WAR threshold and is currently on pace for something insane like -3.0+ WAR for the season. I say he bottoms out at -1.5.
