Astros miraculously trade Lance McCullers Jr. to dream landing spot with NL contender

Of all the Houston Astros' trade assets, Lance McCullers Jr. did not exactly rank highly among them. While there was a time when McCullers would have suitors beating down a path to his door, that was before a slew of injuries robbed him of precious playing time and the stuff that made him one of the league's best young pitchers. Against all odds, however, it looks like the Astros have found someone that will actually take him.

Moving McCullers was viewed to be tricky. Not only has he been hurt constantly over the last few years, but he's also making $17.7 million this year. In terms of rentals, McCullers would be a pretty expensive one unless Houston ate a chunk of his deal.

As it turns out, there was a team that was desperate enough to take a chance on McCullers. It was just reported that the Astros are finalizing a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Astros set to trade Lance McCullers Jr. to the Brewers, but their next steps are unclear

The details here are pretty straightforward. The Astros have been looking for ways to move on from McCullers for a while and the Brewers just lost Brandon Woodruff to yet another injury. While trades between two teams that are still in playoff contention aren't overly common this time of year, there are certainly times when needs line up perfectly.

While we don't know the exact specifics behind this deal, there are some details that are coming out. McCullers had a full no-trade clause, so he had to have been on board with the move. Given that he is being send to one of the better teams in baseball this year, that certainly makes sense. The expectation at the moment is that the Astros should also be getting some salary relief from the move, so you can expect Dana Brown to use the savings to be even more aggressive at the trade deadline than he already was going to be.

Of course, there is a real opportunity for the optics to get ugly here in a hurry. While it was clear that McCullers wasn't going to figure things out in Houston, the Brewers have a knack for unlocking pitchers' hidden potential. If he goes to Milwaukee and ends up helping them in a real way, calls for Brown to lose his job and for a reckoning with the Astros are only going to increase.

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