6 Teams Astros Pray Aren’t In Contention This Season

Assuming there is a trade deadline to be had this year, the Astros will almost certainly be looking to improve their roster at that time.

Should the season actually happen, the Houston Astros will most likely be battling for the AL West crown with an improved rotation, solid bullpen and stacked offensive lineup. But in order to trade with a team, that team generally has to be out of contention to make for a suitable trade partner.

So, here are five teams the Astros pray are not in contention so they can poach away their soon to be free agent talent and who they can take to improve their chances at another World Series trip.

Cleveland Guardians

There has been a lot of talk about how the Astros are going to replace Carlos Correa at shortstop if he does choose to leave via free agency. They’ll most likely give either Jeremy Pena or Pedro Leon a shot to hold down the position to start the season.

But if both of them fail to produce offensively to a sufficient level, the Astros should pray the Guardians are out of it so they can trade for Jose Ramirez.

Sliding Ramirez in at third base and moving Alex Bregman to shortstop would be a nice way to add a big bat should Pena or Leon falter. And Ramirez is an entirely attainable target. While the Guardians finished in second place in a weak American League Central last year, their trajectory seems to be trending downward.

They already lost Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco and are known for operating on a smaller budget. Jose Ramirez only has one year left on his contract, a player option for $14 million that he almost assuredly will turn down to test free agency as he turns 30.

The Guardians finished in second place in their division last year but under .500 at 80-82. While the division is weak, the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals showed tremendous improvement last year in the second half.

While the Guardians went 35-40 in the second half of 2021, the Tigers went 37-34 and the Royals went 38-35.  The Tigers and Royals have talented prospects on the way up while Cleveland has been declining since their 2016 World Series appearance.

Ramirez is a bona fide 30 homer 100 RBI threat and while he would be a defensive downgrade, it should be noted last season was far and away his best year defensively at third base with 10 Runs Saved Above Average. That’s double his previous high of five Runs Saved Above Average he had in 2016.

Considering he would be a one year rental, the Astros shouldn’t have to give up too much of their farm that includes no Pedro Leon nor Korey Lee, but may have to part with high-risk, high-reward prospects like Forrest Whitley to get him.

Los Angeles Angels

Obviously, the Astros hope the Angels aren’t competitive because they’re in the same division. But also because the Angels have a one year contract with Noah Syndergaard that if they’re far out of it by mid-summer they’d maybe be willing to flip Syndergaard if he’s healthy and having a good season.

It’s always hard to trade within the division, but the Astros did it last year with the Seattle Mariners, trading away Abraham Toro and Joe Smith for Kendall Graveman. And the Mariners were still in the hunt for the division at that point being only five games behind the Astros, so anything’s possible.

If the Angels suffer from another injury ravaged season where they have no Anthony Rendon and no Mike Trout, the Astros could pounce on Noah Syndergaard which would be a huge upgrade to the rotation. Think about going into the playoffs with Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr and Noah Syndergaard with Framber Valdez as your number four option.

Last year in the playoffs our lack of starting pitching depth was exposed when McCullers Jr. went down in the ALDS and our bullpen had to be nearly perfect just to get us out of the ALCS with the Red Sox. This is a trade that if it presents itself, the Astros should jump at it.

And again because Syndergaard would be a half-season rental, they should be able to pull the trade off without giving up too much, though again, I’d imagine Whitley would have to be involved if Syndergaard is pitching back to his old Thor self.

San Diego Padres

It’s hard to believe how badly the San Diego Padres collapsed last year. Not just the fact that they didn’t make the playoffs, but that they didn’t even finish above .500 despite being 53-40 at the All-Star break.

They went 26-43 in the second half of the season causing their manager Jayce Tingler to lose his job.

Last year was an unabashed embarrassment for a team that thought it was about to overtake the Los Angeles Dodgers as the class of the NL West. The Padres are really at a cross roads because here is a list of their upcoming free agents within the next two off seasons.

2023: SP Joe Musgrove, SP Mike Clevinger, 1B Eric Hosmer (Player option), LF Jurickson Profar (Player option)

2024: SP Yu Darvish, SP Blake Snell, RF Wil Meyers, 3B Manny Machado (Player option)

Eighty percent of their starting rotation and half their lineup will hit the market over the next two seasons. If it’s looking like the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers are leaving them in the dust they may just choose to blow it up.

Musgrove is the best possible trade option as he seemed to really figure it out last year posting career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts while also posting the lowest ERA and WHIP of his career, 3.18 and 1.08 respectively.

Clevinger when healthy is terrific, but his health is a real question mark coming into the season. Darvish was an all-star last year but his second half was anything but all-star like as he posted an ERA above six contributing to the Padres free fall.

Conversely Blake Snell had a terrible first four months before a hot last eight starts made his numbers more respectable. From August 1st on Snell went 4-2 with 65 strikeouts over 44.1 innings pitched giving up only nine earned runs over that span.

All these starters could help the Astros deepen their rotation and we can all agree it would be fun to see Joe Musgrove back where he came up in an Astros uniform.

Either way the Padres have a lot of starting rotation options to trade should things be looking dour at the midway point of the year and the Astros should have enough of a package to get one of those pitchers depending on their asking price.

Boston Red Sox

While they made the American League Championship Series last year, keep in mind the Red Sox were projected to finish fourth in the division with 80 wins after a rough 2020 pandemic shortened season.

Obviously having Alex Cora back as manager must’ve sparked some life into them, but it is possible in a division as tough as the AL East the Red Sox fall far enough behind the Rays, Yankees and Blue Jays they could be sellers at the deadline.

If that happens, Houston native Nathan Eovaldi is on the final year of his contract and would be a very viable trade option.

His postseason track record alone is enough to want to make the trade (all ALCS Game 4 ninth inning Astros rallies aside) he’s a proven tough and reliable starter willing to come in at any point in any game for however long he’s needed.

The asking price would be pretty high but again, the Astros starting pitching depth last year was the biggest hole in the playoffs that was exposed and you can never have enough proven starting pitching.

A rotation of Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr., Eovaldi and Valdez would not be too shabby to throw out there.

Milwaukee Brewers

A playoff team last year that was lacking on the offensive side of things, if the injury bug hits the Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff early they could fall out of it quickly. And if that’s the case another former Astros prospect could be reunited with his first franchise though it would be for a hefty price.

Josh Hader will be a free agent in 2024 so that means the Astros would have control of him for a full year and a half (the only non-rental on this list aside from Yu Darvish and Blake Snell.) Having Hader would be good insurance if Ryan Pressly leaves in 2023 when his contract is up.

The downside is how expensive it would be to bring in Hader, but the upside is adding a left handed reliever who can go multiple innings to a bullpen that has been lacking that for quite some time now.

The last time the Astros had a reliable lefty in the bullpen you have to go back to 2017 when Tony Sipp had a career year. Since then the Astros have relied on right handed pitchers with strong change-ups/cutters (Chris Devenski, Will Harris, Phil Maton) to face lefties.

Hader would make the Astros already formidable bullpen almost unbeatable. But since we get an extra year of control it would cost more and most likely mean Hunter Brown plus three other highly rated prospects would have to go. Or potentially even Cristian Javier plus a prospect or two.

While all of these teams are expected to be competitive this coming season, if any single one of them are out of it by the midway point, they have the kind of talent that can fill the needs of the Astros. Of course, there needs to be a season first for that to happen. Fingers crossed a deal gets done so we can keep speculating.