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Astros embroiled in massive three-team trade talks that could land Pirates starter

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Climbing Tal's Hill

Athletics v Pittsburgh Pirates / Justin Berl/GettyImages

For some time now, the Houston Astros' best path towards addressing their rotation has been through the trade market. They probably would have preferred to keep Framber Valdez since they didn't trade him or sign another of the top free agent arms, but they simply don't have the payroll space to do so as long as Jim Crane views the CBT as an upper bound. One name that recently popped up on the Astros radar is Mike Burrows and things have escalated quickly since then.

Details are still iffy at the moment, but it appears as though the Astros are deep in talks on what wil end up being a three-team trade involving the Pirates and Rays. Houston would land Burrows in the deal while giving up Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito among a number of other names and faces swapping places.

**UPDATE** We now have the full three-team trade and it is a doozy.

Astros on the brink of landing Mike Burrows in wild three-team trade with Pirates, Rays

Well things definitely escalated quickly and there are a lot of moving parts to parse in this trade. Burrows would certainly give Houston some rotation depth, but the upside in him is questionable and the Astros are having to give up a former top prospect in Melton in addition to a talented young righty with a live fastball in Brito.

It is actually fascinating that this looks like it will be a three-team deal that will also include Brandon Lowe moving to the Pirates. Definitely going to be worth monitoring exactly what haul the Rays end up with. It is a bummer that Lowe is on the move as he could have been of use to Houston as well given their second base issues, but you can't have everything.

With that, the long-standing connection between the Astros and Burrows did end up resulting in real trade momentum. It wouldn't be all that shocking if Dana Brown and the front office called it good after such a move unless they find away to free themselves of Christian Walker and/or free up some payroll space.

Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.