Mets did just that tonight.
Per the article below…
Backup catcher:
Ideal fit: Vázquez.
Others: Elias Díaz (Rockies), Sean Murphy (A’s).
More offense:
Ideal fit: Bell
Others: Trey Mancini (Orioles), Brandon Drury (Reds), David Peralta (D-backs), Ian Happ (Cubs), Seth Brown (A’s).
Another pen arm:
Ideal fit: Andrew Chafin, Tigers
Others: David Robertson (Cubs), Michael Fulmer (Tigers), Matt Moore (Rangers), Joe Mantiply (D-backs), Joe Jiménez (Tigers), David Bednar (Pirates).
Ok, with the reports out there today that the Astros are considering moving controllable starting pitching….just for shits and giggles, would you make this deal??
Astros get 2-plus years of Juan Soto for….
Luis Garcia
Hunter Brown
Pedro Leon
Chaz McCormick
Yanier Diaz
On the trade tracker, this deal is still not enough give by the Astros, but I think this would be a fairly strong offer.
I don’t think I could pull the trigger on something like this, but the Yankees making a move tonight makes me wonder if the Astros are quietly laying in the weeds on Soto. Crane might just want to push all his chips to the center of the table one more time like we almost did with Harper. Trading Garcia might make me puke though.
I’d take Vazquez, Bell and Chafin in a heartbeat. I like what little I’ve seen of Mantiply too. Happ is also somewhat intriguing. If Brantley comes back healthy, Happ in center would be pretty solid.
You could acquire the three without breaking the bank on talent you send back.
Whether I would pull the trigger or not… thats not even close to enough for the Nats to say yes. They need AT LEAST one star potential prospect. For the Astros it would like be, no Tucker, no deal. And I’m good on that as great as Soto is.
Reading where Benintendi now says he will get the vaccine. I would have loved for the Astros to have traded for him if he was going to vax up. He could have played left or center. I wonder how hard Click and company went after him??
I didn’t think it was enough either, and neither did the tracker. I don’t think the Astros have enough to pull it off but it was interesting to think about.
Besides another catcher the Chron says this about also adding a bat…
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Click could pursue a first baseman to replace Gurriel, a proven center fielder to take over for Meyers or a hybrid corner player who could afford versatility in both the infield and outfield. Washington Nationals first baseman Josh Bell fits the hybrid mold, especially if Houston can stow him in left field at Minute Maid Park.
Playing him in LF seems less than ideal given his 20 starts in the outfield in 7 major league seasons (and most of those came in his first year in the bigs).
It’s a bad comparison but Whitley, SS Christian Gonzalez and RHP JP France if you simply looked at similarly ranked players in the Astros system.
I remain unconvinced another reliever is a need. I have been hollering “we need another front line starter” for weeks, apparently into the wilderness. I read yesterday about our willingness to trade a starter, and my reaction was “WHAT???” I like Javier a lot, and maybe Urquidy has found consistency, but Garcia has not. Which of those three are we trading for whom, and what is the rotation behind JV and Framber then? Jake O.?
Forgot to add: fuck the Yankees and especially fuck Benintendi. He is an anti-vaxxer in KC but not in NY? He is not a difference maker. Soto would be, and I hope NYY has moved on from that pipe dream.
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Rumor says we are in on Castillo … so not in the wilderness. It’s all recency bias for me … but Lee doesn’t look ready to spot start … and we lack at least one bat even if Brantley is able to return this season. Bell/Contreras/Castillo. Now that would be something.
Yes, it would.
To even think we could land that much talent at the deadline is crazy. I remember all those years the team was competitive in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and all we could muster was past-their-prime players like Mike Henneman and Vinny Castilla. I know we landed Beltran too, but it seemed like the team typically added next to nothing. Not saying we can’t add the kind of talent you listed…mostly just saying we have been spoiled over the last five years. Hope Click/Crane can step it up one more time.
It’s nice to think about these good players playing for Houston but we never saw the Verlander or Greinke trades happening. I think if/when we trade for someone it will probably be someone we were not thinking about.
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Randy Johnson?
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Ah yeah, that might have been a rather large omission.
Vinny C. had a good year with Houston and said it revitalized his career.
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In the ESPN article Walt quoted upthread, Passan mentioned that in the addition to the Astros, the Guardians are also willing to move some of their young starters, specifically, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale.
I like Plesac a lot and think he’s underrated, but Civale is also interesting. Has a high spin rate on his CB, which is something the Astros seem to covet.
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Davey Lopes , Cam Maybin, MartinMaldonado, almost the entire 2021 bullpen.
All in season aquisitions that helped to various degrees in addition to the ones above.
Johnson, Beltran, Verlander are best thought about as once in an era additions. In other words don’t get greedy. “Let’s just add a hall of fame level talent before the deadline” isn’t a sound strategy.
On a related note Carlos Gomez can suck it.
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Gomez would miss wildly trying to suck something two feet outside the zone
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