Houston Astros: Three players the team needs to avoid at the deadline
By T.A. Mock
Raisel Iglesias, RHP, Cincinnati Reds
Iglesias is arguably having the best year of his young career. He currently holds a 2.20 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP which is below his career averages of 2.99 and 1.10, respectively. He also has already netted 19 saves this year and could fairly easily pass his career mark of 28.
The market for stud relief pitchers has been established very clearly this trade deadline. Kelvin Herrea started it all when the Nationals acquired him from the Royals earlier in the season. That has now been followed up with even bigger deals for Brad Hand and Zach Britton.
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Hand netted the Padres the Indians best prospect in catcher Francisco Mejia. Britton, long rumored to be a Houston Astros target, earned the Orioles a pretty solid return as well. Britton is a half year rental while Hand is signed for a few more seasons.
A deal for Iglesias will more likely imitate the deal the Padres got for Hand than the one the Orioles got for Britton. Iglesias signed a seven-year deal a while back and won’t be arbitration eligible until 2021. So, he is locked in for a while at an extremely team-friendly cost. He won’t be able to test the open market until 2022.
The market for relievers is absolutely insane right now. The number of elite arms that have moved teams has driven up the value for impact guys in the bullpen. The Reds should be in no rush to move Iglesias unless they get an offer that blows them away.
That is the main reason that the Houston Astro should avoid trying to pry Iglesias away from Cincinnati. He is a very solid reliever but, he’s not going to be worth giving up Yordan Alvarez and other top prospects. He won’t be a big enough upgrade to justify that cost so, Luhnow should just stay far away.
Next. Five trades the Astros should make. dark
The Houston Astros should definitely still look into adding a player or two beyond Maldonado. There are a couple holes on this team that they could improve to help power their quest to repeat. Baseball is constantly shifting with there being so many factors, a team should never settle without trying to improve. But, avoiding these three players will keep the Astros on the path to a championship this year and many years to come.