The Astros are in the market for relief pitching, general manager Dana Brown said this evening (relayed by Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle and Chandler Rome of the Athletic). Brown also restated his desire for rotation help and a left-handed hitter, which the club have been seeking for a few weeks.
Houston’s bullpen has been customarily strong this season. They entered play Tuesday ranked fifth in the majors in ERA (3.69) and topping the league with a 27.5% strikeout rate. That production has been built around an excellent top four of Ryan Pressly, Bryan Abreu, Phil Maton and Hector Neris. Houston has leaned hard on that quartet, as each has reached 45 appearances.
That’s a mark hit by only 22 pitchers thus far. Abreu leads MLB in appearances, while Maton is tied for second. Brown indicated they’d like another arm so they can ease off the workloads off their top four a bit down the stretch. Uncharacteristically middling performances from Ryne Stanek and Rafael Montero leave the relief depth a bit thinner than it has been in previous seasons, though it’s far from a glaring weakness.
Houston’s bullpen skews overwhelmingly right-handed. That could point toward a southpaw being ideal, but the Astros have been comfortable rolling with righty-heavy bullpens in recent seasons and been no worse for wear. Chris Stratton, Keynan Middleton, Reynaldo López and Kyle Finnegan are among the right-handed options who’d likely be available as middle relief targets. Brooks Raley, Brent Suter, Brad Hand and Sam Moll are among the left-handed trade candidates.
While the bullpen has been mostly healthy, Houston has taken injury hits in the lineup and starting staff. They’re getting healthier as the deadline approaches. Brown confirmed that both Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve were near game readiness and could be reinstated from the injured list before tomorrow’s contest against the Rangers, whom Houston trails by one game in the AL West. José Urquidy is a bit further off but could be back within a week to 10 days.
With Urquidy nearing a return, Brown indicated the Astros could be content acquiring an innings-eater towards the back of the starting staff. Houston’s front three of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier and Hunter Brown is a high-upside trio, although Hunter Brown has some innings concerns and Javier has scuffled lately. “We may not need that frontline starter and that’s going to require us to give away a lot of prospects,” Dana Brown told reporters. “Our top three are really good and so we can just add to that. And (J.P. France) has been outstanding. So we’ll take our three big horses and we put France in the mix and then we’ve got Urquidy back and then maybe just add somebody else that can give us some innings, that could be very sustainable.“