No-trade clause no help to Astros
Two rejected deals set franchise back
No offense to any of his peers, but the next time Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow sees another player receive a no-trade clause, pardon him if he excuses himself.
It’s these no-trade provisions that have him waking up in a cold sweat, wondering if any franchise has been impacted more by trades that never happened than the Astros.
“You can’t help to think about it,” Luhnow said.
No one is saying the Astros would necessarily be leading the American League West these days or have a 2015 World Series ring. But if not for two exercised no-trade provisions over the last 12 months, their fate would look a whole lot different.
The Astros, the AL’s version of the Chicago Cubs a year ago, can only look on in envy this season, fighting for their lives simply to stay in the wild-card race.
The Astros, who were crushed 8-2 on Wednesday by the St. Louis Cardinals for their fourth loss in a row, are hopelessly out of the division race, trailing the Texas Rangers by 9 1⁄2 games.
They were six games behind the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race entering Wednesday night.
But, oh, how everything could have been different if Cole Hamels hadn’t exercised his notrade rights when the Philadelphia Phillies dealt him to the
Astros a year ago and Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy hadn’t vetoed a deal to the Cleveland Indians two weeks ago.
“It changed everything,” Luhnow said.
So instead of the Astros landing Hamels as the ace of the staff, he went to the division rival Rangers.
To make matters worse, if they had acquired Hamels, they wouldn’t have had the same prospects to trade for outfielder Carlos Gomez, who turned into a colossal bust and was designated for assignment last week.
And instead of landing Lucroy themselves after their trade proposal, he wound up with the Rangers, too.
“So we’ve had two deals not accepted by the player that have directly impacted us the last two trade deadlines,” Luhnow told USA TODAY Sports.
“That’s why I sure wish teams wouldn’t give out no-trade clauses.”
As if the Astros hadn’t suffered enough, even after aggressively bidding on New York Yankees slugger Carlos Beltran, they watched the Rangers land Beltran, too.
The Astros instead did nothing except trade veteran starter Scott Feldman to the Toronto Blue Jays. Two days later, they lost starter Lance McCullers, who was pitching better than anyone else on the staff, with a strained right elbow.
“It’s hard to go from a veteran leader like Feldman to kids who have never been up here and find ways to get the team cohesive,” veteran reliever Pat Neshek said. “We went from two rookies to nine rookies in a couple of weeks. It makes it tough.”
The Astros, who nearly buried themselves in the first two months of the season, going 1728, only to recover and go 44-27, are sliding again. They’ve lost 10 of their last 15, and their schedule is relentless. They play 20 of their next 26 games against playoff contenders in the Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, Rangers, Indians and Cubs.
“It’s a brutal schedule, which obviously I’ll admit is less than ideal for our group,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “But the way we started the season, we sort of earned the stress. We earned the hill that we have to climb to get where we need to get.
“We still have an opportunity in front of us to do something, but the four months it has taken to get to this point has taken its toll.”
The Astros, who have the fourth-youngest team in the major leagues, with no one else in baseball having more than their nine rookies, have no choice but to do it with their kiddie corps. Their only help is in the farm system, with prized Cuban third baseman Yulieski Gurriel.
Gurriel, who signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract last month, originally was expected to arrive Tuesday. Yet a 2-for-17 stretch with Class AA Corpus Christi (Texas) changed those plans. He was promoted anyway but only to Class AAA Fresno.
“The feeling was that he wasn’t 100% confident that his timing was there yet,” Luhnow said. “He has to be ready, and he has to be comfortable that he’s ready.”
While the Astros have been impressed with rookie third baseman Alex Bregman’s defense, Luhnow says that the starting third base job will go to Gurriel, at least through this season, and Bregman would move to left field.
If nothing else, Gurriel should provide an energy boost, helping squelch the letdown from failing to acquire a veteran for the pennant stretch.
Besides trying to acquire Beltran and Lucroy, the Astros talked to the Tampa Bay Rays about their starting trio of Chris Archer, Matt Moore and Jake Odorizzi and even made inquiries about Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale.
They came away empty-handed.
“We attempted to make moves, but we weren’t prepared to pay the costs for the players we tried to acquire,” Luhnow said. “The message we delivered to our guys was that we believe there’s talent to win this season with the guys that are here. It should be a boost of confidence to their abilities, as opposed to feeling like we didn’t do anything to help them.
“We did acquire one of the best international players of the last decade, who’s major league-ready. He will be here, help us out, and he should provide a boost.”
Who knows, maybe it’s silly to dismiss the Astros with six weeks left. They stunk when the expectations were enormous at the season’s start. They thrived when they were counted out. They badly faltered again when they closed within 2 1⁄2 games of the Rangers three weeks ago. Now, just when it looks like they’re done, maybe they’ll have one more surprise.
“I think we play really well as the underdog,” Neshek said. “When we’re in position that everybody gives up on us, it’s like, here we come. I just think early on there were a lot of expecta- tions, we kind of went out there expecting things to happen, and they weren’t happening.
“When you have those expectations to win the World Series and people are picking you as a sure thing, sometimes it’s hard to live up to.”
Certainly, Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel knows the feeling. A year ago, he was 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA. This year, he is 7-12 with a 4.76 ERA.
“The way this season has panned out sure hasn’t been the way we wanted,” said Keuchel, who is yielding a .240 batting average against lefties this year compared to .177 a year ago. “We definitely built ourselves a hole, but I really believe the hitting will be there. It’s the pitching that will make us or break us the last month.
“If we get good pitching, we’ll be right there. If we don’t, we’ll be sitting at home.”
Still, if the Astros are to somehow stay in the wild-card race, they’ll need to find production besides their magnificent core of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer. They think Bregman will be a star, and the same with first baseman A.J. Reed, but both are clawing toward .200. Outfielders Colby Rasmus, who has battled vertigo after accepting the Astros’ $15.8 million qualifying offer, and Gomez have been disasters.
The Astros still love their future and hope to add a few veterans in the winter. But for the present, it’s starting to look more like a step back after years of dogged progress.
“It’s just been a tough year for us,” said Correa, who hit .429 with a 1.324 on-base-plus-slugging percentage last week. “But really, I cannot tell you why. What can I tell you?
“It’s baseball, man. Sometimes it’s just hard to explain.”