What should the Houston Astros do with Scott Feldman?

Scott Feldman (Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports)

On Sunday morning, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported the Houston Astros placed pitchers Scott Feldman and Chad Qualls on revocable waivers. Feldman is scheduled to start the Astros’ series opener against the A’s on Monday night at Minute Maid Park.

This is a pretty unsurprising move, considering many players are put through waivers at this time of year, but it’s definitely a situation to keep an eye on. I don’t expect anything to happen with Qualls because he has a cheap club option in 2016 and the 36-year old has been very solid with a 3.07 ERA this season. 

However, let’s take a look at the Feldman situation a little more in-depth. Rosenthal says a decision on the veteran right-hander is expected by Monday (that means he will either 1. clear waivers, 2. be claimed off waivers, or 3. be pulled off waivers by Monday) and the Astros will have even more scenarios to deal with after that:

"1. If pulled off waivers, the Astros will keep him2. If he clears waivers, the Astros can trade him to any team before the August 31st deadline3. If he is claimed, the Astros can trade him to the team that claims him4. If he is claimed, the Astros can also just dump his contract on the team that claims him"

Scott Feldman (Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports)

Feldman signed a three-year, $30 million dollar contract with Houston over the offseason. The deal is broken up like this: $12 million this season, $10 million next season, and $8 million in 2016. Although he is just 7-9 with a 4.37 ERA this year, Feldman is a very solid veteran that could draw some interest from team’s needing a spot-starter down the stretch and/or long-inning reliever for the playoffs. After a difficult July where had an ERA of 5.58, Feldman has thrown a quality start in three of his last four games this month.

I don’t think the Astros would get much in return, but I still think it would be smart to take advantage of the situation (even if that just means dumping his contract on someone else.) The Astros organization is loaded with young arms and Feldman has been pretty disappointing overall this year. Although it would hurt the team to lose one of their starting pitchers this year, I don’t think he would be hard to replace in the long run.

What do you think the Astros should do?