Houston Astros Open To Trading Outfielder

The 2023 season hasn't quite gone according to plan for the Houston Astros. Their 44-37 record leaves them in an unfamiliar spot in the AL West, looking UP at another team. They trail their cross-state rival Texas Rangers by 5.0 games for first place, with a big series coming up. 

But don't expect GM Dana Brown to consider selling at the trade deadline. “I can’t see any scenario where we sell,” Brown said. “The thing I keep remembering is last year in Atlanta (where Brown was VP of Scouting before taking the Astros job), we were 10 back and we ran the Mets down. I have no interest in selling, zero."

With that, Brown is strongly considering his options at the deadline coming up in four weeks' time. And that involves a willingness to trade an outfielder.

We’re exploring trading major-league player for major-league player with teams that are contending that make sense. We have a lot of outfielders right now. If we could move an outfield piece for something that could fill another need, we probably would be interested in doing that. Player for player? Yeah. We have to get creative to open up the market. We’re definitely exploring that.

As noted by Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic, teams making a major leaguer-for-major leaguer exchange might become all the range at this year's deadline, due to the potential lack of sellers in the trade market. So instead of the usual sending out of draft pick futures to a downtrodden team, it could be a more equal win-now for win-now type of trade that makes headlines. 

As for the Astros,  they have three outfielders currently who bat right-handed, Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers and Corey Julks. And one of them, McCormick, has drawn the interest of the New York Yankees recently.

The need for Houston: a solid bat. They've been without star slugger Yordan Alvarez all month due to injury, and he isn't expected back for a few more weeks. 

Photo: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports