Astros Rumors: Dana Brown has 'talked' with Mets about Pete Alonso, ex-rival ace

The Houston Astros are set to be busy at the trade deadline. There have been rumors swirling for a while that the Astros are in the market for a starter and may take a big swing at the deadline to fix their lack of production at first base. With just a few weeks to go before the deadline, those rumors are not slowing down one bit.

In a piece over on The Athletic, Jim Bowden revealed that not only are the Astros talking big, but they are already shopping in some pretty expensive aisles on the trade market. According to Bowden, some of the names that Houston GM Dana Brown has already asked about directly in talks with teams include Pete Alonso, Christian Walker, Cody Bellinger, Luis Severino, and Garrett Crochet.

Astros Rumors: Dana Brown trying to swing a big trade at the deadline

There is a lot to unpack here, as there are a number of names the Astros appear to have varying levels of interest in and who are varying degrees of exciting. Alonso is one of the best power hitters in baseball, although he is also pretty much only good at hitting home runs and acting like a 1980s frat boy movie villain. Crochet is one of the hottest names on the trade market, but he might need his innings managed in the second half, and Luis Severino is coming off a soul-crushingly bad season with the Yankees last year. Ditto on the innings management there. Astros fans likely remember Sevy from breathing fire in Houston on occasion, but mostly melting down, like when he tried to retire Alex Bregman early in Game 2 of the 2022 ALCS.

What is clear from Bowden's comments is that no moves are close to happening. Brown was probably going to do his due diligence on every available player at positions of need anyways, but the reality that talks at the GM level have already involved big names like Alonso, Bellinger, and Crochet does telegraph Brown's intent to make a big move.

It is pretty wild the difference a month and a half makes. At the end of May, it looked like the Yankees would never lose againt and the Astros may never win again. It is now the middle of July and the Astros may be pushing their chips in while New York is wondering which way is up.

Should've never let Severino go, huh, Yankees?

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