Luhnow not looking back on Kazmir deal
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Trading at midseason for a free agent to-be can be looked at as a recruiting process. The player gets to know the staff and vice versa, and the groundwork is laid for a long-term relationship. It’s a leg up other teams don’t have — and in the case of free agent Scott Kazmir, bringing him to Houston early and giving him a taste of what the Astros would be like could be viewed as part of the value the Astros got when they traded for him in July.
Even if that’s the perspective one takes, it’s not what’s driving the Astros this winter. They’ll be talking to Kazmir, but general manager Jeff Luhnow said Tuesday he feels no need to justify the trade that sent Jacob Nottingham to the A’s by re-signing Kazmir now that he’s a free agent.
“We traded for Kazmir because we wanted Kamzir for the balance of 2015 and for the playoffs,” Luhnow said. “That’s independent of who we see Kazmir as as a free-agent candidate for us going forward. The two aren’t linked. I think it would be irresponsible of me to want to sign him more so just to justify a trade that is already over. I mean, that trade is over.
“Now, we got to know Kazmir. He’s comfortable in Houston. There’s things that we really liked about him, so that would lead us to want to be interested, but … nothing about our desire to sign a free agent relates to how he came to the organization.”