5 Astros players who are making Dana Brown's quest to save his job at trade deadline harder

The Houston Astros spent April looking like a 100-loss footnote and June looking like a division winner, which is a very Astros way of turning a simple question into a headache. With Dana Brown in the last year of his deal after Jim Crane never bothered to extend him, there’s only one currency that gets Brown another year. Wins. The good news is they’ve started to show up. 

Houston has climbed back into a wide-open American League West with their good June, and now the deadline is closing in. Given that Crane has already shut the door on a teardown, Brown’s job is to add. But there are a handful of players on the roster that are making his job harder than it needs to be. 

The 5 Astros players making Dana Brown's trade deadline harder

Mike Burrows is the one who probably stings the most because he was brought in by Brown to be part of a solution. The Astros traded Jacob Melton, their number two prospect, with Anderson Brito in the three-team deal that brought Burrows to Houston to help fill the shoes left behind by Framber Valdez. The return on that has been pretty rough. Burrows enters play this week with a 3-8 record and a 5.48 ERA. He broke out last year in Pittsburgh, but has regressed in almost all categories this season. 

Every rough Burrows outing is more than a loss; it’s a referendum on the trade made this winter that simply hasn’t worked out. It’s led to rotation still being something that Brown needs to solve at the deadline. That’s not exactly what you want to have as one of your arguments to keep your job.

Lance McCullers Jr. is the other rotation bet that hasn’t worked out, though this isn’t on Brown, and he also can’t do much about it. The 2026 rotation was structured with the idea that McCullers would continue his comeback with a much better year than 2025. For one start, it looked like a good bet. It hasn’t looked like that since, and now he’s out with an injury. He may return sometime in the next few weeks, but you never know with someone who has been bitten so hard by injury. And it doesn’t help that McCullers is currently a totally sunk cost because he can’t be moved to help facilitate a deal.

Jake Meyers has struggled enough this season that a position that was once a strength has become a need. He can still go get it in center, but the bat has fallen off a cliff. After hitting .292/.354/.373 in 2025, Meyers has been worse than ever with a .205/.264/.318 line through Sunday’s action. He’s been in and out of the lineup because of his issues offensively, with Taylor Trammell and Brice Matthews getting at bats. And he’s missed time with an injury. But with outfield depth already a concern, not being able to count on the guy you thought would be your mainstay starter is a big problem, and it opens up a need that is very difficult to fill at the deadline. 

Spencer Arrighetti is a cruel one because he was the answer for two months. But once the calendar turned from May to June, he went back to being a question. He’s given up three or more runs in all five June starts and has given up 14 runs over nine innings in his last two. Overall, he has a 9.00 ERA in 25 innings this month with seven home runs allowed. Brown can go get help for the rotation, and he’ll need to, but if he can’t count on the guy whom he thought he could count on to start the season, that makes things even more difficult.

Bryan Abreu has been an issue pretty much all season. He was so reliable last season, but he has spent most of the first half imploding. He had a 12.54 ERA at the end of April, but had a nearly perfect May, allowing just one run over nine innings. That came in his final outing of the month. But the peripherals told a different story with just seven strikeouts and seven walks in those nine innings. He gave up three runs in his first outing in June and has only allowed two other runs this month with better peripherals, but there’s still a lot of concern. When you can’t be sure if you can trust one of your highest-leverage arms, that causes problems. 

What should probably keep Brown from a good night’s sleep is that the stars are (mostly) holding up their end of the bargain. Yordan Alvarez has a chance to win the Triple Crown. Jeremy Peña has been very good since his return. Christian Walker has been very good after a down season. Josh Hader has looked unbelievable since he’s been back. Hunter Brown hasn’t been great, but he’s been good enough in his three starts since he came back.

The only real exception is Jose Altuve, but even he hasn’t been terrible overall. The top of the roster is doing exactly what Brown needs it to do. It’s the supporting cast, including a move or two from Brown, that has kept the season balanced on a knife’s edge. And that balance includes his job.

The deadline is a few weeks away, on August 3. Brown has basically confirmed the only move for him is to add, which makes sense for someone trying to buy himself a year or two more. That’s especially true with Brown's name on top of pretty much every hot-seat list. These five are a big reason why his to-do list is longer than he’d like, and ht reason the margin for getting it right is as thin as it’ll ever be.

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