Astros add former top-100 prospect in trade with Yankees before free agency begins
The Houston Astros' offseason got off to a rather intriguing start. Though most of the focus throughout H-Town is centering around Alex Bregman, Houston decided to make a trade shortly before free agency officially began on Monday.
Sources are telling Chandler Rome of The Athletic that the Astros are acquiring New York Yankees outfielder Taylor Trammell. The former top-100 prospect has seen his fair share of organizations over the past few seasons, including an extended stop with one of Houston's AL West rivals, the Seattle Mariners.
Astros trade with Yankees for former top-100 prospect Taylor Trammell
Trammell, believe it or not, was also a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this season. So, one could say that the Astros acquired a World Series champion, though Trammell's 0-for-6 performance during five games with LA hardly warrants much celebration.
Trammell is former top prospect who was originally drafted by the Cincinnati Reds. He was part of a midseason trade back in 2019 involving Trevor Bauer and Yasiel Puig. After spending the first few seasons of his career in the Reds' minor league system, Trammell was dealt to the San Diego Padres as part of the three-team trade.
Trammell was then traded once more, this time to the Mariners. The outfielder finally made his big league debut in 2021, appearing in 51 games for Seattle. Three seasons in the Emerald City saw Trammell hit just .168/.270/.368 before he was designated for assignment this past spring.
Trammell has always been lauded a tremendous athlete, and has the arm to play center field. However, Trammell's bat has never translated to the major leagues. The 27-year-old has an .881 career OPS at Triple-A, but that number dips to .633 in the bigs.
While this is likely more of a depth move rather than an indictment of Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers, there's no doubt that those two Astros outfielders will be on pins and needles with the MLB non-tender deadline quickly approaching.