2 Teams Are Holding Fire Sales. Who Should the Astros Take?

The trade market got a little more interesting on Tuesday afternoon, as a report from Ken Rosenthal surfaced that the Detroit Tigers would take calls on “just about everyone” in advance of the trade deadline a week from today. Not long after, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman sent out a tweet saying that the Miami Marlins would listen to trade offers for any one of their players, except for current Cy Young frontrunner Sandy Alcantara. This obviously makes the list of players that the Houston Astros could trade for a lot bigger.

Houston has reportedly been very aggressive in their pursuit to add at the trade deadline, and this news means that they have a whole new group of players to inquire about. While it was certain that the Tigers would be sellers weeks ago, the Marlins were very close to a .500 record earlier in the month and a hot streak would have put them in a playoff spot. However, they haven’t been able to make up much ground since, and are officially open for business.

Detroit is going the same route at the deadline but in an even more extreme way. They’re now in year 6 of a rebuild that, according to their owner, was supposed to be done by now. After surprising many and finishing as an above-.500 team from May 1 onward last season, they have gone backward, currently sitting in last place in the AL Central with a 39-58 record. That’s worse than everyone else in the AL except for Oakland and worse than everyone else in MLB except for Oakland, Cincinnati, and Washington.

While they’re both at different points in their respective rebuilds, both Detroit and Miami offer plenty of young talent that, if available, could help the Astros in a big way. Here are the players from each of those teams that Houston should be pursuing.