Astros don’t need to upgrade their offense Mark DeRosa

With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, the Astros most likely will make a trade or two to get ready for the playoffs.

There are a lot of people out there who say that the Astros need to trade for this and that. Fortunately, Jeff Luhnow knows exactly what this teams needs and what would be a waste of time. We need to trust in Luhnow’s plan. He knows what he is doing.

Then you have Mark DeRosa of the MLB Network who will keep on making suggestions for the Astros. At first, he suggested that the Astros trade for Eric Hosmer and then trade Alex Bregman plus for Chris Archer. Hosmer doesn’t make much sense for the Stros, do they really need offense. Today, DeRosa was back at it suggesting that the Astros trade for Manny Machado.

Before you start salivating at the thought of Machado in the middle of this lineup, let’s look at the cost. In part of DeRosa’s fantasy baseball trade, Houston would send Bregman, Francis Martes, Derek Fisher, and Forrest Whitley. We have already seen three of these guys in action and three of them are former first round picks.

Is Machado needed?

That’s a hefty price, but if this were the pre-2017 version of Machado, that would be a steal. However, Machado is batting .228 with 15 homers and 38 RBIs. That would not be a terrible addition to the Houston lineup. The question would be, do the Astros need offensive help? The Stros lead in many offensive categories in baseball, not just the AL.

The lineup.

The fact that the Astros have decreased the strikeouts while maintaining the power is impressive. This lineup is deep with a typical top four hitters of George Springer, Josh Reddick, Jose Altuve, and Carlos Correa. They have a solid group of veterans hitting behind them in Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Evan Gattis, and Yulieski Gurriel.

Next: Astros All-Stars: Keep voting for Altuve, Correa, and Springer

Then you have a mixture of backup players in Marwin Gonzalez, Nori Aoki, and Jake Marisnick. That’s not even including the guy who has still yet to hit towards his potential in Bregman. We don’t even have a place for some talented guys waiting in Triple-A. While I would love watching Machado in an Astros uniform, it doesn’t make much sense. He would walk after 2018.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference and team stats from ESPN***