Houston Astros Now Trending Towards Holding On to Stars
The contending teams around MLB have their eyes set on the Houston Astros to see what happens with their superstar players at the trade deadline.
Houston is in a better spot than they used to be in, but have started to hit a plateau. Sitting at 34-40, it's getting harder to get back into the Wild Card every day.
Eventually, the front office will need to make a decision on what is going to happen at the deadline.
As Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter made his predictions over the next month, he predicted that they would actually do nothing at all despite a lot of speculation surrounding their big names.
The most talked about player that could land on the trade block (and most sensible to trade) has been Alex Bregman.
Though Bregman been a franchise cornerstone for almost a decade, his time in Houston could be over soon. He's set to hit free agency after the end of this campaign. Instead of losing out on him for nothing, many have suggested a trade.
After starting out the season with one of the worst stretches of his career, the 30-year-old has been one of the reasons that things have turned around.
He's slashed .338/.390/1.023 since the start of his 16-game hitting streak that just came to an end a couple of days ago. At this point, trading him away would absolutely be waving the white flag on the season.
The other superstar that has been thrown into trade conversations Kyle Tucker, who is set to enter free agency at the end of the 2025 season.
Trading him mid-season with any playoff hopes doesn't make much sense. He's currently on the IL, but the lefty was the league leader in home runs not too long ago.
He was playing out of his mind to start this campaign, but his value could be be higher in the offseason. If the Astros want to move him, they should probably wait until then, especially if they feel ready to compete.
On the opposite end of selling, it also doesn't make sense to buy too much either. Missing the playoffs is a real possibility, so Houston emptying out their already empty farm doesn't seem logical either.
Their starting rotation is still in a rough spot, though, so the Astros might want to look at adding some cheaper options that could still improve the outlook there.
Houston GM Dana Brown could change the outlook of the league with a couple of trades, but the more likely outcome seems to be riding it out once again.
DYLAN SANDERS
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders