Astros-Marlins trade deadline scenario would be gross misuse of Houston's resources

The Houston Astros are almost certainly going to try to be active at the trade deadline, but the market is going to have to cooperate. They need another left-handed bat especially since it looks like Yordan Alvarez could be out for a while and, like every other contender, Houston will grab pitching depth if the right opportunity becomes available. With such well-defined needs, the "experts" who love to put together fake trade proposals have featured the Astros prominently lately.

One such Astros proposal came during The Athletic's Jim Bowden's trade deadline mailbag. While the proposal didn't originally come from Bowden, he did seem to enthusiastically agree with a proposal with the Marlins that would see the Astros ship out most of their prospect depth in exchange for a very...questionable return.

Proposed Astros-Marlins trade for Jesus Sanchez and Edward Cabrera misses the mark on multiple levels

If you are only looking at team control and making some questionable assumptions about the actual quality of the players involved, this deal makes some sense. Both Jesus Sanchez (a left-handed bat with some power) and right-handed starter Edward Cabrera would come with multiple years of team control and would knock out two of Houston's needs with one move.

The problem comes in the cost and what the Astros would actually be getting in return. Houston would be giving up Brice Matthews, a top 100 prospect with an up arrow next to his name right now, a promising pitching prospect in AJ Blubaugh who may end up more consistent than Cabrera, and a guy who was Houston's top prospect mere months ago in Jacob Melton.

Sanchez does have some pop, but he has been a consistently very average at best hitter the last three years. He'll hit .250ish and occasionally run into one, but does seem like a bat that warrants giving up as much as the Astros would be here? Cabrera is having a really nice season, but this season feels like an outlier at the moment, especially with the amount of hard contact he gives up.

The idea here is sound, and if Miami wants to talk about a deal for just Sanchez that wouldn't require the Astros to spend their biggest trade bullets, Houston should pursue it. However, the Astros would be giving up way too much for too little actual player quality, even if the team control is there. At the end of the day, a move doesn't make much sense unless it is an actual upgrade.

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