Houston Astros: Kyle Tucker's future with the organization

The Houston Astros have pretty much declared that they’re not going to make any moves before the waiver trade deadline ends. No Justin Verlander. No nothing.

The Houston Astros have suffered many injuries and up and down performances from their pitching staff. But Jeff Luhnow has said he does not want to part with any top prospects, which makes acquiring major league talent from other teams near impossible to do with that stance.

What’s interesting about this stance is that while I understand not wanting to deal any of their minor league pitchers away as Dallas Keuchel could leave during free agency soon and Lance McCullers Jr. has had a hard time staying healthy leaving his future as a starter in jeopardy, it’s interesting that Luhnow doesn’t have any inclination to part with offensive prospects.

The team has clearly signaled that they have confidence in Derek Fisher at the major league level after shipping away the newly acquired Nori Aoki after only a half season with the team. If Derek Fisher is the left fielder of the future and Jake Marisnick is our fourth outfielder, that leaves only the designated hitter next year as a vacant spot that could be occupied by Tucker.

Overall the team is set offensively for the next two years and in the outfield for even longer with George Springer and Jake Marisnick being the first of our current outfielders to hit free agency in 2021. So what does this mean for Kyle Tucker?

It seems that if Derek Fisher is considered untouchable, that means Kyle Tucker should be available. Unless the thought is that Josh Reddick, Springer, Marisnick, Fisher and Tucker will all get enough at-bats platooning between the outfield and designated hitter spots.

This choice to not part with any top prospects seems strange considering that even other big names in the minor league system like Yordan Alvarez who is blocked by Yuli Gurriel for another three and a half years or Colin Moran who is blocked by Alex Bregman are unavailable.

Maybe Moran is available but our potential trade partners don’t view him highly enough to sell their MLB talent for him. Regardless Tucker is the one prospect that, if you believe in Fisher at the major league level, is completely expendable.

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I have written multiple times that I prefer Tucker over Fisher simply because his ceiling is higher and he’ll be major league ready by mid-summer next season if all goes according to plan. And Aoki, while not the most talented hitter, was certainly serviceable as a nine hole hitter if the team wanted to sell Fisher and wait on Tucker for next year.

It’s difficult to understand Luhnow’s reluctance to trade any of his top prospects that are offensive pieces. At some point you may lose them in the rule five draft if there’s no place for them on the major league roster.

That’s why the rule five draft is there. To prevent teams from stock piling prospects. Perhaps there’s some ultimate plan Luhnow has that us plebians can’t see or understand. But at the moment, his staunch position on not trading top prospects on the offensive side of things is puzzling to say the least.

And it leaves those of us on the outside wondering what is the future of our top prospect with the team if he has nowhere to play. At this point, that question will remain unanswered until at least the Winter Meetings and perhaps beyond.

Next: Jeff Luhnow is making a huge mistake

Only time will tell if Luhnow wants to hold onto Kyle Tucker for a bigger trade he sees down the road, or if he believes he can get everyone enough at bats with the American League advantage of the designated hitter. We’ll see soon enough.

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Houston Astros: Kyle Tucker’s future with the organization

By Joe Fernandez | Aug 17, 2017

The Houston Astros have pretty much declared that they’re not going to make any moves before the waiver trade deadline ends. No Justin Verlander. No nothing.

More from House of Houston