With his first MLB Draft as Astros general manager in his rearview mirror, Dana Brown has turned his attention to the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline. The Astros hit the All-Star break two games behind the first-place Rangers in the American League West, which is a feather in their cap considering the number of injuries they had in the first half. Nowhere were the Astros impacted more by injury than in their starting rotation, with veteran Lance McCullers Jr. getting hurt early in the spring and starters Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy going down on consecutive nights a month into the season. McCullers (forearm) and Garcia (Tommy John) had season-ending surgery, and Urquidy is on a Minor League rehab assignment and could return early next month. The Astros have gotten solid work from rookies J.P. France and Hunter Brown, along with Brandon Bielak, but with Cristian Javier suffering from fatigue near the All-Star break, there's a clear need for another arm. "We're entertaining a lot of different things we'd like to add to the club, if possible," Dana Brown said Friday. "We know the price tags are high and we know that there's not many things on the shelf. There's not many players out there, and there's a lot of buyers right now. What we're being told by a lot of clubs is, 'Hey, give us to the end of the week, we'll see what things look like.' I've talked to multiple clubs that told me that. We're going to have a lot of meetings next week leading up to it and we'll be ready to pull the trigger if we get something that makes sense." The Astros reached the American League Championship Series the last six years and advanced to the previous two World Series, with ace lefty Framber Valdez, McCullers and Javier as key contributors. Who knows how much the extra workload has contributed to the injuries, but the Astros' rotation was very healthy last year and held up well into November. "When you go deep in the postseason year after year … you can get worn out in the course of a season, and if we can add an arm that would be great," Brown said. "I just don't know if there's going to be one available that's worth it." |
Which brings us to Spencer Arrighetti, the team's No. 9-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline. He's on the radar for a second-half callup, especially if Houston can't swing a deal for another starter. Arrighetti had a 4.15 ERA with 79 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings at Double-A Corpus Christi before getting promoted last month to Sugar Land, where he has a 4.50 ERA and 15 strikeouts in just 12 innings. "The beauty is you've got a guy that's throwing well in Arrighetti, who may get an opportunity if he continues to throw well," Brown said. "If he comes up here and throws well, it would be like acquiring a player at the Deadline. That's the beauty of your prospects; you use them instead of going out and getting other players and throwing them away. If Arrighetti can come up here and fill out that spot, that would be great. We hope he keeps throwing well and we'll keep an eye on him." |
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RESTED VALDEZ EYES SECOND HALF |
Valdez, the All-Star left-hander, said last week he didn't want to pitch in the All-Star Game if he wasn't the starting pitcher. It turns out Valdez didn't even attend the Midsummer Classic in Seattle after the Astros told him they didn't want him to pitch, just like they did in the World Baseball Classic in March. Valdez has been a workhorse starting pitcher the last three seasons for an Astros team that has made the World Series the past two years. From 2020-22, Valdez ranked fourth in the Major Leagues (including playoffs) in innings pitched with 475 1/3, trailing only Gerrit Cole (493 2/3), Sandy Alcantara (489) and Aaron Nola (482 2/3). "It was one of those things [where] there wasn't really much to argue," Valdez said. "When I was told the owner and GM didn't want me to pitch, there wasn't really much I could do there. I can tell you I really wasn't that happy with the decision, but after that I decided, 'All right, I'm going to prepare myself for the second half' and took a couple of days of thought about it…" Valdez, who will start Saturday against the Angels, said he spent the break with his family instead of attending the All-Star Game and not playing. The lefty was the winning pitcher in last year's All-Star Game. "[In Seattle], it was going to be a stressful day, doing a lot of different things, so I decided to take a mental break, physical break and be able to enjoy it with my family," Valdez said. "Obviously, it's the second half and we still have a long way to go and I decided to just rest." Brown said the Astros are simply looking out for Valdez and trying to make sure he's ready for the grind of the final two months of the season and the playoffs. "The worst thing you can do is have him go out there and something happens and you're second-guessing yourself and now we don't have him long-term here or he gets sidetracked," he said. "His workload has been really heavy the last few years. Give him a breather, let him catch his breath and let him get back out there in the second half and show everybody what he's doing. It's an honor to be selected for the All-Star Game. I understand how painful it is for him not to be able to play. It's a really difficult decision, but we decided it's probably best to sit this one out. We did the same thing early in the season with the WBC." |
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ASTROS SIGN FIRST-ROUND PICK MATTHEWS |
Astros' first-round pick Brice Matthews, a shortstop from the University of Nebraska, headlined a group of 11 players the club signed from their 2023 Draft class on Saturday. Matthews received a signing bonus of $2,478,200, which is below the slot value of $2,880,700 for the No. 28 overall pick. Matthews, a former star high-school quarterback at Atascocita High School in suburban Houston, is a 6-foot, 190-pound right-handed hitter who blossomed into a serious prospect in his junior year at Nebraska, hitting .359/.481/.723, with 67 RBIs and 61 runs scored to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors. He became the first player in Nebraska history to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in a season. The Astros also signed third-round pick Jake Bloss, a right-handed pitcher from Georgetown University. The remaining Draft picks and signings are listed here. |
For the first time since 2019, the Astros will play a game in Mexico when they face the Rockies April 27-28 in Mexico City as part of the MLB World Tour. The Astros last played in Mexico in 2019, when they faced the Angels in Monterrey, and they haven't played in Mexico City since an exhibition against the Padres in 2016. The Mexico City trip was the highlight of the Astros' 2024 schedule, which was released earlier this week. The Astros will open the season with a four-game series against the Yankees, starting with Opening Day on March 28. They will close the season in Cleveland, Sept. 27-29. With every team playing every other team for the second year in a row, the Astros will make their first visit to Wrigley Field in Chicago since 2013, their first year in the American League. Houston will play at the Cubs, its former National Central rival, from April 23-25. The Braves will make their first visit to Houston since winning the 2021 World Series when they visit Minute Maid Park April 15-17, and the Cardinals will come to Houston for the first time since 2016 when they return June 3-5. Non-divisional AL series highlights include the Blue Jays (April 1-3), Twins (May 31-June 2), Orioles (June 21-23) and Red Sox (Aug. 19-21). The Astros will also play host to the Brewers, Dodgers, Marlins, Pirates, Rockies and D-backs from the NL, and will go on the road in the NL to face the Nationals, Rockies, Giants, Mets, Phillies, Reds and Padres. |
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