Astros: Make A Push For Jay Bruce?
It’s T-Minus two days before the trade deadline of this Friday.
It’s getting closer and it appears the Houston Astros are on the brink of making a deal.
Just who are they going for?
There are rumors that are all over the map in terms of the talent that they’re trying to land to be a part of this talented, cohesive roster.
We know that the club is making a hard push for Cole Hamels.
We know of their interest in Carlos Gomez.
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But what if they are targeting someone that we don’t know about?
That’s usually the way a Houston sports franchise operates, always eying and landing talent that you’d least expect for them to.
Although the deal Scott Kazmir, didn’t catch me too off guard because they had been talking with the Oakland Athletics about a deal bring him back to his hometown.
This certainly isn’t the A’s year and Billy Beane doesn’t mind loading up on prospects for the future so that way they can see success later down the line.
We certainly rescued Kazmir out just pure futility as he was just biding the time until the season was over.
Now he’s with a playoff contender that will make some noise a bit.
But with all of my thoughts aside of how the Astros have done so far in free agency — which has been outstanding by the way — let’s talk about a guy that they may not have their radar locked on.
Just who am I talking about?
None other than right-fielder Jay Bruce of the Cincinnati Reds.
Whenever the Astros were talking to this club about the possibility of landing Johnny Cueto — before the Kansas City Royals scooped him up — I was thinking how nice it would be to package Bruce along with Cueto as well.
Although we have some talented outfielders at the moment, the thought of bringing Bruce would be a boon for the Astros.
He is a natural right-fielder — he has played more than 1,000 games at that position in his career — but has proven that he can man first base stepping in for Joey Votto at times whenever he was injured.
He did a lot of that earlier this month.
Although his bat would sometimes fail him during this season, he’s put together a nice hitting campaign to where he has hit .286 in his last seven games.
He also has eight hits and seven ribbies through 28 at-bats.
Just what it would take to get him?
The Astros have one of the best — arguably the best — farm systems in MLB.
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They have plenty of crop to dangle and the team does have some pieces on its current roster that they can package in such a deal.
The Astros have the goods but it’s a matter if we have what the Reds want.
Just don’t touch any guys named Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Dallas Keuchel and George Springer.
And even to lesser extent, Lance McCullers Jr.
I’d say that answer would likely be an emphatic “yes.”
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Bruce won’t be cheap either — he’s about at the midpoint of a six-year, $51 million dollar deal paying him about $12 million for the next three seasons.
A deal would need to worked on to try to keep the Reds on the hook for some of that salary.
This may be an idea that’s completely far-fetched and not even on the radar of the Astros’ front office but he’s worth taking a look at.
But I have no doubt that the Astros will not disappoint us before the culmination of the trade deadline.
So now we must wait.
By the way, in case you’ve been under a rock, the MLB trade deadline is this Friday, July 31 at 3 p.m. CDT.
Let’s hope for the best — go ‘Stros!