The Houston Astros were one of the worst teams in baseball early in the season, sparking MLB trade rumors about All-Star hitters like Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. Houston hasn’t had any problems this summer, surging back into playoff contention and dramatically changing the club’s plans at the MLB trade deadline.
At the end of May, Houston sat near the bottom of the MLB standings with a 25-33 record. Now, entering MLB games today, the Astros have the best record in baseball since June 1 with a 27-14 mark. It’s not only pushed them back into the MLB playoff picture, but thrust them back atop the AL West.
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There’s plenty of credit to go around in Houston. In that 41-game stretch, the pitching staff recorded a 3.55 ERA and held opponents to a .224 batting average (2nd in MLB). The Astros lineup has certainly played a critical role in the turnaround, slashing .265/.319/.438 with the fifth-most runs scored (216) since June.
The Astros also recognize there is plenty of room for improvement. The Astros rotation has been dealt multiple blows this year, with Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez spending significant time on the injured list. On top of that, former starters Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. haven’t thrown a pitch all season.
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During an appearance on MLB Network Radio, Astros general manager Dana Brown said the club is first prioritizing going big-name hunting to address its starting rotation. If that doesn’t pan out, then Houston will go after mid-level starters.
“Try go to big and see if there’s a deal that makes sense for the organization. f that don’t work, we’ll go down to mid-level and hopefully we can land something there. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. When you go through this, ask and thou shall receive sometimes. We want to try to go big, and if we can’t get the big thing done, we’ll try to go mid-level so we can get through this.”
Houston Astros GM Dana Brown on the approach to the MLB trade deadline
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Brown also revealed there are multiple motivations behind Houston’s strong desire to land a reliable starter. With the aforementioned armed on the injured list and requiring significant time to recover and then build themselves back up, Houston could go to a six-man rotation at times.
As for potential Astros trade targets, there are obvious names if Houston is seriously committed to being aggressive. The Detroit Tigers have started discussing a Tarik Skubal trade and MLB trade rumors make it evident that Chicago White Sox’ ace Garrett Crochet is very available.
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With that said, the Astros top prospects likely aren’t good enough to win a bidding war against clubs like the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. As a result, Houston will likely have to pivot to second and third-tier pitching options.
Based on the starting pitchers leaked in MLB rumors, Houston will likely have to focus on starters like Frankie Montas (Cincinnati Reds), Tyler Anderson (Los Angeles Angels), Jack Flaherty (Detroit Tigers) and Erick Fedde (Chicago White Sox). Fortunately for Houston, there are more than enough starting pitchers available for trade so it will just come down to where they find the most value.
