The Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and gone, and oh man, was it a busy one. If you follow the game some, you'll recognize the big names changing addresses the last couple of days, including Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Jose Berrios, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Craig Kimbrel, to name a few. What you won't see is the Houston Astros attached to any of those names.
And that's exactly what Astros GM James Click focused on. It started 3 days before the deadline when the Astros and Seattle Mariners, who were playing each other at the time, pulled off a 4 player trade that sent utility infielder Abraham Toro and reliever Joe Smith, to Seattle for 2 of their relievers, one being their top 8th/9th inning guy, Kendall Graveman, and Rafael Montero. This was somewhat shocking for the Mariners to give up Graveman because they are in the thick of the Wild Card race, and seeing how Seattle hasn't been to the playoffs since 2001, the longest drought in all of sports, giving up one of their best relievers was a head scratcher. In fact, Seattle players were clearly not happy with their GM dealing away Graveman.
This season Graveman has really put it together. In 30 appearances this season, Graveman has an 0.82 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, .136 batting average against, with 10 saves, and remember, an ERA+ of 100 is exactly average. This year Graveman has an ERA+ of 509. Granted, it's only been just this year that Graveman has put up these kind of lights out numbers, but this is a huge get for the Astros and all it cost them was a utility infielder and an ineffective reliever. Pressly will still be the closer, but Graveman can step in when he's not available, and having those 2 shortening the game to 7 innings could be huge.
The Astros pick up another reliever, of course. This time it's Indians reliever Phil Maton. Other than extremely high strike out rates, over 13 per 9 innings over the last 2 seasons, Maton is exactly average as his 100 ERA+ would indicate. Maton has a career 4.74 ERA, and this season it's 4.57 with a 1.35 WHIP, and despite all the strike outs, 61 in 41 innings, only has a 3/1 strike out to walk ratio. And that's because he has 20 walks in those 41 innings. Yes, that's pretty high. The Astros were already having problems with relievers walking too many batters. The only thing I can figure they were looking at is the strike outs. So Maton it is.
With Straw now gone, the Astros have to depend on rookie Chas McCormick, who has been a solid backup. In just 154 AB, McCormick has 10 HR, but he's batting .240 and his OBP is a measley .305. He also strikes out (57) much more than he gets hits (37). Now McCormick gets thrusts into every day play and it's a big unknown if he can handle that or not. His .305 OBP is not indusive to flipping the order. So, this seems like a risky move by the Astros to get a pitcher that has a lot of strike outs, but not all that great elsewhwere.
That doesn't mean the Astros didn't participate. In fact, they made several moves before the deadline. The Astros however, have a payroll that is up against the luxury tax threshold, thanks in large part to the huge contracts of Zack Greinke, and Justin Verlander, who has missed the entire season having had Tommy John surgery. So they weren't going to be big players in getting the big names and going over the luxury tax.
The Astros also have somewhat of a depleted farm system thanks to trades to get guys like Greinke and Verlander here, and because of the fact that the Astros got 1st and 2nd round picks taken away from them for 2 years because of the sign stealing scandal. So they really didn't have a lot to offer to get some of these big names.
I should also tell you that as of the date of the deadline (July 30th), the Astros had the best record in the American League, and the 2nd best record in all of baseball. So they already had a very, VERY good team. That doesn't mean they didn't have weaknesses on the team, they absolutely did. And the biggest weakness was the bullpen by anybody not named Ryan Pressly. Just in the last week the Astros lost a game they were up 7-0 in, as the bullpen took over and blew it.
The Astros also have one of the top offenses in baseball. They are #1 in MLB in runs scored, #1 in batting average, #1 in on-base percentage, and nobody strikes out less than the Houston Astros. So if the Astros needed help at the deadline, where they needed it the most was the bullpen.
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| Astros GM - James Click |
And that's exactly what Astros GM James Click focused on. It started 3 days before the deadline when the Astros and Seattle Mariners, who were playing each other at the time, pulled off a 4 player trade that sent utility infielder Abraham Toro and reliever Joe Smith, to Seattle for 2 of their relievers, one being their top 8th/9th inning guy, Kendall Graveman, and Rafael Montero. This was somewhat shocking for the Mariners to give up Graveman because they are in the thick of the Wild Card race, and seeing how Seattle hasn't been to the playoffs since 2001, the longest drought in all of sports, giving up one of their best relievers was a head scratcher. In fact, Seattle players were clearly not happy with their GM dealing away Graveman.
Graveman was a starting pitcher for Oakland for 4 years were he was average at best. As a starter for the A's, Graveman was 23-29 with a 4.38 ERA, with an ERA+ of 93. An ERA+ of 100 is exactly average, so Graveman was actually a little below average. Graveman signed with the Mariners as a free agent in 2019, and missed the entire season with a benign bone tumor in his spine. In the COVID shortened 2020 season, the M's put Graveman in the bullpen where he struggled a bit, probably getting back into baseball shape after missing a year.
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| Kendall Graveman |
This season Graveman has really put it together. In 30 appearances this season, Graveman has an 0.82 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, .136 batting average against, with 10 saves, and remember, an ERA+ of 100 is exactly average. This year Graveman has an ERA+ of 509. Granted, it's only been just this year that Graveman has put up these kind of lights out numbers, but this is a huge get for the Astros and all it cost them was a utility infielder and an ineffective reliever. Pressly will still be the closer, but Graveman can step in when he's not available, and having those 2 shortening the game to 7 innings could be huge.
The Astros did get a scrub pitcher in return in Rafael Montero. In his 7th year in The Bigs, Montero has a career 5.29 ERA, with a 7.27 this season. That's about in line with some of the guys already in the pen, but to add a player like Graveman makes it worth it. He replaces Smith who after opting out of the COVID season last year, was having a horrible 2021 season with a 7.48 ERA and a 1.80 WHIP. Dude just wasn't getting anybody out.
So that was the 1st move. Click wasn't finished. A day later Click is calling the Miami Marlins, and again he's looking for bullpen help. The target is Marlins closer Yimi Garcia.
The cost, Austin Pruitt, riddled with injuries this season, who the Astros designated for assignment, meaning they cut him from their 40 man roster and had 10 days to either trade him, or he agrees to the assignment and goes back to the Astros minors, or they just let him walk. The Astros also had to deal minor league outfielder Bryan De La Cruz to the Marlins
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| Yimi Garcia |
The cost, Austin Pruitt, riddled with injuries this season, who the Astros designated for assignment, meaning they cut him from their 40 man roster and had 10 days to either trade him, or he agrees to the assignment and goes back to the Astros minors, or they just let him walk. The Astros also had to deal minor league outfielder Bryan De La Cruz to the Marlins
Garcia, after 7 seasons in the Majors, 5 with the Dodgers, finds himself in the closer role for the 1st time in Miami. He, of course, will not be the closer in Houston. Garcia has 15 saves this year with a 3.47 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Not eye popping numbers by any means, especially for a closer, but a 118 ERA+ puts him well above average.
So the Astros now have added 2 players with closer type potential, to give them 3 with Pressly. And so far all it has costs them is a utility infielder (Toro), a reliever having a horrible season (Smith), a guy they were basically cutting (Pruitt), and a minor leaguer in the Astros system since 2014 (De La Cruz).
On the day of the deadline, while all the big names were moving and dominating the headlines, Click and the Astros weren't finished with what has turned out to be a complete bullpen rebuild basically. Click makes one more call to the Cleveland Indians, soon to be Cleveland Guardians, but that's another story. This one is a bit of a head scratcher on the Astros side.
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| Phil Maton |
The Astros pick up another reliever, of course. This time it's Indians reliever Phil Maton. Other than extremely high strike out rates, over 13 per 9 innings over the last 2 seasons, Maton is exactly average as his 100 ERA+ would indicate. Maton has a career 4.74 ERA, and this season it's 4.57 with a 1.35 WHIP, and despite all the strike outs, 61 in 41 innings, only has a 3/1 strike out to walk ratio. And that's because he has 20 walks in those 41 innings. Yes, that's pretty high. The Astros were already having problems with relievers walking too many batters. The only thing I can figure they were looking at is the strike outs. So Maton it is.
The Astros also get a minor league catcher from the Indians in the deal, Yanier Diaz. He's expected to stay in A ball for now and he'll probably go to Asheville or Fayetteville, the Astros high A and low A teams respectively.
What did the Astros have to give up for Maton and Diaz? That's where the head scratcher part comes in. In return, the Indians get the Astros starting CFer, Myles Straw. Before the season, when the Astros didn't re-sign George Springer, they needed a replacement for him. When they didn't sign anyone and decided to go with Myles Straw, I, personally, wasn't too happy about it, and not very impressed with new GM James Click. Straw came into the season with a .246 career average, with 1 HR in 3 seasons as basically a 4th outfielder. Now all of a sudden, he's a starter. He had a career OPS+ of 76. Like ERA+ for pitchers, a 100 OPS+ for batters is exactly average. So Straw was well, well below average.
Straw started the season off slow. By the end of April he was batting .212. His on-base percentage was .289. Both horrible. But once the calendar flipped to May, Straw started catching fire. Since May 1st, Straw is hitting .279 with an OBP (on-base percentage) of .357. Since June 1st he's hitting .289 with an OBP of .371. Getting on base at the bottom of this Astros lineup helps flip it back to the top of the order. That is an integral part in helping keep this lineup being so lethal. Keeping it alive for the top part of the order to hit with somebody on base.
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| Chas McCormick |
With Straw now gone, the Astros have to depend on rookie Chas McCormick, who has been a solid backup. In just 154 AB, McCormick has 10 HR, but he's batting .240 and his OBP is a measley .305. He also strikes out (57) much more than he gets hits (37). Now McCormick gets thrusts into every day play and it's a big unknown if he can handle that or not. His .305 OBP is not indusive to flipping the order. So, this seems like a risky move by the Astros to get a pitcher that has a lot of strike outs, but not all that great elsewhwere.
Overall, I think the way the Astros went about things by not just going after big names to make big splashes and adding big payroll, was a smart move. Instead they focused on the weakest area of their team and addressed it.
So again, the Astros had the top record in the American League, 2nd best in MLB, and made themselves stronger in an area they were really weak. I think they'll be OK without the Scherzer's, Kimbrel's and Rizzo's of the world.
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