Houston Astros: Team still zeroed in to trade for lefty closer Zach Britton

The Houston Astros have less than two weeks to close a deal on some bullpen help but latest is that they’re still interested in Zach Britton. What’s going on? Let’s look.

Houston Astros fans — our team was represented wonderfully during the MLB’s 89th Midsummer Classic and Alex Bregman continues to give us snippets of why he could obtain GOAT status as he blossoms through his career.

This team is rolling at this point of the season, pretty much at the same pace that they were in last season’s championship run. However, with the questions that continued to arise in the bullpen — particularly the closer role — as we have been able to quite find the guy to get the job done.

Ken Giles has worked his way into a Triple-A demotion, Hector Rondon can be up-and-down with his closing abilities and Collin McHugh seems capable but I see him is more as long guy in the bullpen rotation when the situation warrants. Chris Devenski should be the setup man because that’s what he does best and he just doesn’t fit the closer role all that well.

So what have the Houston Astros done? It’s likely that management feels that a bona-fide closer is not needed and the can still select a pitcher “by-committee” to take care of business. The problem with that is that come playoff time, you’ll want somebody who’s seasoned enough to be put into a high-pressure and handle it with precision unlike the way Giles did in the ALCS in last year’s run.

Speaking of that, the man the team needs to keep prying away at is Zach Britton, who is back

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from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon he sustained last season.

According to Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors, he indicates that the Houston Astros along with the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox have all been connected to having the desire to acquire the lefty in some way.

Adams mentions that he’s had some gains with his sinker pitch, helping generate a 68.8 percent ground-ball rate through tossing seven scoreless outings. He thinks that his control is still an issue but I think that’ll improve as he gets more work in and he knocks off the rust. His first-pitch strikes are currently hovering at 40 percent but I’d take that it will increase over time.

Britton earns $12 million this season with his pro-rated portion that the Houston Astros would likely have to pay being at a comfortable $4.8 million. He’ll certainly cost more than that as I’m sure they’re looking for a prospect package as the Baltimore Orioles are looking to accelerate their rebuilding project, especially with the recent announcement of trading Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

How much will Britton cost? I’d certainly package Cionel Perez, Ronnie Dawson and possibly Garrett Stubbs in the deal to land Britton. All of these guys will help the Orioles rebuild tremendously. In my opinion, our Top 5 prospects of Kyle Tucker, Forrest Whitley, Yordan Alvarez, J.B. Bukauskas and Freudis Nova are OFF LIMITS so the Orioles shouldn’t even think about acquiring those guys of ours.

We’ll have to see but hopefully the Houston Astros make a huge splash for a closer like Britton before the deadline.

Next: Bold 2nd Half Predictions for the Astros

Britton, 30, possesses a 3.68 ERA, a 1-0 record while tossing 13 strikeouts, allowing six earned runs, nine walks and 11 hits with a 1.364 WHIP through 14.2 innings pitched since returning last month.

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