GM Jeff Luhnow says no deals likely for pitching help, so roster might be set.
Luhnow tells fans he’s open to trades, but pitching deals looking less likely
Twenty minutes into a question-and-answer session with general manager Jeff Luhnow on Saturday, Astros fan Mike Bray broached the topic on everyone’s minds.
“So, Jeff, are you still talking trades,” asked Bray, 66, who occupied a second-row seat for the forum, part of the Astros’ annual FanFest at Minute Maid Park.
Luhnow’s response, while answering the question, wasn’t exactly revealing. The Astros talk trades “all the time,” the GM assured Bray before tempering expectations some: “I don’t know if anything’s going to happen,” he said, “but I do know that we constantly are looking for opportunities to improve the club.”
As spring training looms, however, it looks less and less likely Luhnow will land that coveted frontline starting pitcher to pair with Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers. Yet to find commonground for a deal with the Chicago White Sox for Jose Quintana or the Tampa Bay Rays for Chris Archer, the Astros barring a surprise will begin spring training with the same rotation uncertainty with which they entered the winter.
Speaking to reporters Saturday for the first time since the winter meetings in early December, Luhnow acknowledged that the Astros’ current roster is “probably the roster that we’re going to have to start the season.”
“We’re always open to considering ways to improve it, but right nowI’d set the expectations low that there’s going to be any major changes,” he said. “We’ve got a good roster of guys that I think can compete for the division title this year.”
Whether the Astros have enough starting pitching to make a run at the World Series is the question that will trail them until they prove otherwise. Injuries prematurely ended last season for each of their top two starters, Keuchel and McCullers, and when healthy enough to pitch Keuchel had a 4.55 ERA in 26 starts a year after winning the Cy Young Award.
If healthy, Keuchel, McCullers and Collin McHugh are locks for the Astros’ rotation this season. Newcomer Charlie Morton is penciled in as their fourth starter, but the team would like to see the oft- injured righthander solidify that spot in spring training.
Joe Musgrove and Mike Fiers, then, would be left to compete for the fifth spot with Chris Devenski lurking as a wild card. (The Astros plan for Devenski to begin spring training as a starter but have yet to determine his role for the season.)
Francis Martes, the Astros’ top pitching prospect and one of their best trade chips, will be waiting in the wings, probably
beginning the season in Class AAA.
“We feel like we’ve got enough depth in the rotation that we’ll have five guys in our rotation that are going to be able to compete every night, and our offense is going to keep us in games,” Luhnow said.
“So, I think we’re in a good spot. It doesn’t mean I don’t consider opportunities to bring someone in that can slot toward the middle or top half of our rotation. … I’m not expecting anything to happen, but it’s something that wedefinitely consider on an ongoing basis.”
The Astros have the option of reassessing the starting pitching market before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, whenthe prices should be slightly less than this winter.
But there’s a lot of season between April 3 and July 31, and until the Astros pay the premium to acquire another frontline starter the same questions will persist.
“Once we start the season and see how our guys are doing, then obviously we react,” Luhnow said. “If we feel like we need to go out and get somebody, we’ll make that happen. But if we don’t (feel that way), then we probably saved ourselves a few prospects.”