The experts' grades of the Astros' trade deadline moves should have fans excited

Now that everyone has had a couple of days to digest (and recover from) the trade deadline, the Houston Astros seem to have done well for themselves. They weren't able to add the lefty bat they wanted, but they did go out and reunite with Justin Verlander in what was arguably the biggest trade of deadline this year. Between the Verlander trade as well as adding Kendall Graveman for some bullpen depth and you have a really strong trade deadline push from Dana Brown and co.

Here's how experts graded the Houston Astros trade deadline moves

It isn't a given that these will work themselves out, but there does seem to be a lot of positivity surrounding the Astros at the moment. In fact, it is worth diving into how the experts graded the Astros' moves at the trade deadline to get a better sense of the industry's consensus. It is quite telling.

This list is not going to be exhaustive. There are a ton of trade deadline grade pieces out there right now. Moreover, each outlet handled their grading different with some categorizing winners and losers, others giving teams overall grades, while the rest graded each individual move. There isn't going to be any sort of standardization being done here. Instead, the focus here will be just noting what some of the bigger media outlets are saying about the Astros' trade deadline as a general census.

ESPN

The fine folks at ESPN went with the grading the individual trades route. While they didn't give a grade for the Graveman deal, David Schoenfield did give the Astros' an A for the Verlander deal ($). Schoenfield did note that Verlander does seem to be declining and the amount of money he is owed could be concerning, but said that the Astros were right to take the gamble given the state of the Astros roster. Verlander may not be what he was, but he is still very good and this move simply gives Houston a better chance of repeating.

CBS Sports

CBS Sports decided to just assign grades to each MLB team at the deadline and the Astros again got full marks with an A. They did note that it would have been preferable for Houston to find a way to extract some trade value from one of their extra outfielders. However, adding a valuable bullpen arm and one of the best starting pitchers to ever do the job was more than enough to be declared a clear winner at the deadline.

The Athletic

Jim Bowden over at The Athletic also went with a team grade approach ($) and also gave the Astros an A. Bowden declared Houston the winners of the trade deadline based almost completely on their ability to get the Verlander deal done. One thing he made sure to mention is Houston's ability to get the Mets to pay down Verlander's deal as much as they did really helped to offset the prospect cost they gave up to get him.

Bleacher Report

The folks over at Bleacher Report went with an individual trade grades listicle for their trade deadline grades. For the Verlander trade, chalk up another A for the Astros with BR noting that the move allowed Houston to keep pace with the very aggressive Rangers as well as the money that Houston saved on the rest of Verlander's deal. The Kendall Graveman trade got a C as BR was high on prospect Korey Lee that Houston gave up and noted that Graveman's velocity was down and that he hadn't played particularly well of late.

The Sporting News

Finally, we come to The Sporting News who also went with a grading each individual move approach. The Verlander deal got an A- as he was the arm they sorely needed. It is pretty apparent this grade was given before it was known how much of Verlander's deal was getting paid down by the Mets which would have likely boosted the grade here to full marks. The Graveman trade got a C+ as Sporting News, too, noted that Lee was a high price to pay for Graveman even with the extra year of team control Houston got with Graveman.

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